


I'll Bring You Back to Life

by Rule27NeverKnowinglyBeSerious



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, Alive!Lupin&Tonks! Bashing, F/M, Fem!Harry, Hermione Bashing, Powerful!Fem!Harry, Weasley Bashing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-11-30
Updated: 2015-07-23
Packaged: 2018-01-03 02:12:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 36,167
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1064484
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rule27NeverKnowinglyBeSerious/pseuds/Rule27NeverKnowinglyBeSerious
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Agent Jace Black's life has never been easy. After winning the war against Voldemort, everyone she ever cared for turns on her. Then after spending ten years in Azkaban, Neville and Luna help her escape. They sacrifice themselves to save her and she makes her way to Budapest, where she runs into our favorite spy duo. Will SHIELD protect her from the Wizarding community who wants their "fugitive" back? Will the former "Girl Who Lived" ever stop finding herself in the middle of dangerous situations? Yep, Jace's life will never be normal. Like it was even normal to begin with.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Escaping

**A Rule27NeverKnowinglyBeSerious fanfic**

**Disclaimer: I do not own _The Avengers_ or _Harry Potter._ I’m pretty sure I am not JK Rowling or Marvel, so…**

**Chapter 1: Escaping**

_Date: 1 September 2008_

_Location: … Somewhere in the North Sea_

_Target: Lower levels of Azkaban prison, High-Security cells_

_Objectives: Relinquish “Death’s Gifts” to Cellmate Number: 246785; destroy the rune marks (this must happen in order for the mission to succeed)_

_Postscript: Come home safe, Luna_

_Neville_

Luna clutched the small bit of parchment to her narrow chest. She sucked a breath through her nose quickly and exhaled. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. It continued this way for several long moments as she crossed the threshold into Azkaban. Her breath suddenly became visible as the Dementors crept close to her.

Remembering her D.A. lessons from years ago, she brought out her wand and thought of her loving husband. She took a breath and spoke the words like her best friend taught her to. She cried out, “Expecto Patronum!”

Her small white rabbit Patronus burst from her wand and drove the Dementors back further into the stone walls of the prison. The oily guard that was escorting her spoke, “You shouln’ ‘ave done tha’.” He flashed a black smile at her and she curled her lips in disgust.

The war hadn’t turned her cold; it was what happened after that made her disgusted with humanity. She still remembers the pale face of her friend as she defeated Voldemort. The light finally returning to her eyes only to be snuffed out as her gaze fell upon her “friends” and “family”.

The auburn warrior was quickly subdued by her “best friends” and “lover”. The low-life ginger brothers and bushy bitch of a brunette. Luna wipes her nose as she saw the warrior, the hero, the _girl_ she considered her best friend dragged away, broken and betrayed. And Luna just stood there, looking in horror. Hoping someone, anyone would help her. But no one did. They just stood there with varying faces of guilt, astonishment, relief, and victory.

Luna followed the guard through the stone corridor, past the cells: some empty, some not. Until they reached a big, heavy, wooden door.

Luna sucked in a shaky breath. It had taken her and Neville several years to come up with this plan and execute it. They played with the Ministry and others for ten years. Earning favors, collecting others. All to get to here. Ten minutes with the prisoner.

Luna prayed to every deity she knew that the handoff would go smoothly. She could only hope after the life her best friend lived that she had perfected the art of survival. If anyone could survive in here for that long, it was definitely her.

The two descended the dark spiral staircase to the lower levels, where the high-security prisoners were held. Luna flashes back to how the warrior ended up here. The Wizengamot used everything to declare her guilty: bribes, blackmail, etc. Her face as her “friends” and “family” abandoned her, spouting nonsense of how she had always been dark, how only a “dark witch” could survive dying twice, how she would rise up and take Voldemort’s place as the next Dark Lady.

Luna had tears running down her face as the Dementors swooped in to Kiss her. Her screams as the beasts clamped their hands on her jaw and wrenched her head. The sadistic looks from the Weasley brood and Granger. Even the faint smiles ghosted on the werewolf and Metamorphmagus.

Luna turned her head away into Neville’s chest, whose face was pale and terrified. Unbeknownst to anyone, an explosion rang throughout the court. A great light flared and dissipated.

When they could finally see, the sight was shocking. There was the auburn warrior in the center of the stone floor, pale, a bit clammy, but alive. The Dementors were nothing but ashes scattered around her. She stared at her hands, the ashes and the rest of the court, horrified and confused. Apparently that was all the evidence the Wizengamot needed. Someone Stupefied her and then through her into this hellish pit and left her to rot.

If that wasn’t enough of a punishment, they marked her in runes. Trapping her magic, keeping her young to be able to handle the torture. It didn’t make any sense to Luna, but the Minister of Magic thought it quite the clever plan. Weak, unable to use her magic, she would spill and tell them everything.

The warrior had been tortured for years, little to anyone’s knowledge. She had grown up abused, bullied and neglected. How she was still pure and kind, after that, was beyond anyone’s mind. And then saving their school year after year, helping and caring for others before herself. Then the darker years, when she was mocked and scorned but carried on nevertheless. Most people would have fallen by now, but not the warrior. She was more than a warrior.

She was a survivor.

The guard and Luna came to a stop at the bottom of the stairs and turned down a dark corridor. There was a single wooden door at the end. Narrow slits were evenly space on the left stone wall, they poured in small amounts of gray light. Their shoes clicked as headed down the hall.

Luna peered at the slit in the wall and saw nothing but rough, gray water. It was low tide right now, but what happened when it was high tide? Surely the entire sub-level would flood. So she asked the guard this as he fumbled with his keys, searching for the right one.

He snickered, “We just leave her here. The runes prevent her from dying. But it’s always fun to hear her drowning. Apparently salt water doesn’t mix with whip slashes.”

Luna steeled her face and crushed the note from Neville in her grip. She clutched her satchel and bit her tongue as he inserted the correct key and pushed open the door. Luna carefully stepped into the room and bit her tongue harder to keep her from making a noise. The scene before was one of a nightmare.

The cell was quite large, at least 14x14 feet in volume. The walls were the same dismal gray stone as was the floor. The left wall had the narrow slits, like the corridor outside, it illuminated a great, dark cage. Chains hung from the ceiling, lowering into the cage. And in the center, on her knees, arms raised, wrists and ankles shackled, was the survivor.

Luna’s lips trembled as she gazed upon her best friend. The guard sounded from behind her, “Okay you got ten minutes, then it’s my turn.” Luna felt a shudder of disgust roll through her and the door slammed shut.

The sound jostled the chains with an eerie click. Luna surged forward and fell towards the bars. She managed to reign in her sobs but not her tears. Her breath became quick as she rattled the bars.

Her focus became clearer as a moan escaped the survivor’s chapped lips, “You do realize you have access to a wand? You don’t just have to rattle the bars.” Luna wheezed and raised her wand to the lock on the cage door. She whispered the words frantically and rushed into her best friend’s prison.

She fell on her knees and wrapped her arms around her friend. She pulled back as she winced and groaned, “Oh, I’m sorry did I hurt you? Are you hurt?” She carefully examined her friend, taking in the state of her appearance. The survivor was wearing nothing but a thin, dirty, tank top and equally dirty panties. Her skin was covered in grim and scars. She was far too skinny; her ribs could be seen clearly through her thin tank top. Her long auburn hair was dirty, grimy and lank, in need of a good wash. Her face was no better. The once gay and joyful hazel-green eyes were now dead and helpless. There was a long scar that ran from the inside of her left eyebrow, across her eyelid, down her cheekbone and end at her jawline.

In short, she had been here for far too long. She was wasting away and the Wizarding community was far too cruel to let her die.

She licked her chapped lips and in a hoarse whisper, “What are you doing here, Luna?” Her sullen eyes searched silver-gray ones. Luna swallowed, “I’m here to rescue you… or well… help you to rescue yourself.”

The depressed eyes flashed gold, “What makes you think I was to be rescued?” Luna’s jaw quivered, “Because Neville and I are the only ones left who care. We have worked too damn long to just leave you here. I refuse to leave behind my best friend, again.”

Her sigh was more of a death rattle and it disturbed Luna greatly. She licked her lips again, “What’s the plan? You don’t have a lot of time.”

Luna’s hand dove into her satchel and immediately set to work. She dug out the three Gifts and a small package wrapped in velvet. She tapped her wand to the chains and her thin wrist fell as did the rest of her body. Luna caught her and felt the welts and bruises on her back. She set her carefully on her knees and grabbed the first Gift.

The dark cloth settled around her thin shoulders and seemed to almost melt into her skin. “But this is…”

“Shh,” Luna interrupted her and grabbed the second gift. An ugly gold ring with a black diamond shaped stone at the center and grabbed the frail girl’s wrist and forced it onto her middle finger. “And this…”

“Uh-uh, quiet. Now here.” Luna said shoving the final Gift, a long thin wand with a knobby design running up and down it, into her skeletal hands. Luna forced the hood of the first Gift over her grimy hair and she helped her to her feet. Unsurprisingly, she didn’t disappear as most people would think. The survivor licked her lips, “Luna I can’t use these. My magic is block from these.” She flicked her wrists up to the blonde.

Ancient Celtic runes seared in her flesh shown up at Luna. She gently fingered them. Ones for _Binding_ and _Eternity,_ were the biggest, surrounded by others for _Youth_ and _Torment._ She grabbed the velvet-wrapped package and unbound it. nestled in it was a glass dagger. On the handle, it sported other ancient runes, but ones for _Release_ and _Freedom_.

The blonde looked up expectantly to the auburn, “Do you…?”

“Just make it quick.”

Luna grasped her wrist and brought the dagger to meet skin; she glanced at her friend again and slashed. The survivor gasped quietly at blood pooled at her wrist and ran down her arm and into her palm. Luna quickly slash her other wrist and the auburn disappeared.

Luna chuckled quietly and glanced at the door. She murmured a quick incantation and a twin auburn was in the chains of the cage. “Okay that’s a little weird.” Her friend’s voice tickled in her ear. The auburn lowered the hold, allowing herself to be visible. She held her bloody wrists up to Luna and Luna tapped them each and whispered another spell.

The blood disappeared and the skin knitted back together. The runes were still there but marred so their powers ceased. The two quickly left the cage and stood in front. Luna locked the door and the auburn put up her hood and disappeared. Not even a second later did the guard walk in and see Luna fingering the cage. He smirked, “She won’t be getting out of there any time soon, so don’t worry.”

“Oh I wasn’t worrying. Least not about her. I was more interested in the Nargles flying around. I was hoping to see some Darstead Hinkle Bugglers. Oh well, it was still a good visit.”

The guard regarded her as though she was insane, “Yeah, alright, well your time’s up. Time for you to leave.” He slipped in and held the door and waited for Luna to step through. She seemed to be staring into space and a few seconds later she skipped through.

Their walk back was devoid of conversation. As Luna headed for the exit, the Dementors seemed to crowd her. But they stopped suddenly and seemed to bow their heads toward the small lady. The human guards thought it a bit odd, but never said anything.

They didn’t seem to notice that the lady’s hand was slightly raised and cupped, as though she was holding someone’s hand. As soon as she was to the Apparition point she flew her hand and seemed to grip her imaginary friend’s hand tighter. With a crack she was gone and the phantasm in place of Number 246785 was gone as well.


	2. Budapest pt. 1

**A Rule27NeverKnowinglyBeSerious fanfic**

**Disclaimer: I do not own** **_The Avengers_ ** **or** **_Harry Potter._ ** **I'm pretty sure I am not JK Rowling or Marvel, so…**

**In which Jacinta escapes the British Isles and makes her way to Hungary. There she meets our two favorite spies. The question is how did they meet?**

Luna Apparated straight in front of a good-sized London apartment complex. The sign on the building said _, 405 Fishguard Way_. It was a cream-and-tan-brick building, with plate-glass windows and a few curved metal balconies. It was certainly an upgrade from the prison and cage. But it lacked the charm of Number Twelve Grimmauld Place, as charming as it was for such a dark house.

Luna kept a tight grip on the invisibility-cloaked hand as she entered the building, passed Charlie the building manager (murmuring a quiet "good morning") and quickly climbed the stairs to her and Neville's third-floor flat. She hastily shoved her key in the lock and flung the door open. She shoved her friend in and followed. Slamming the door close brought her husband into the front hall.

"Is it done?" said Neville.

Luna's eyes flashed over to a bit left of her and Neville's followed. The invisibility cloak slivered to the floor, revealing their scantily clad friend. Neville's face broke into a smile and he scooped the auburn girl into a hug.

She went stiff but relaxed after a moment and returned the hug. Neville's arms tightened around her, as if he thought she would disappear again. He said, "I've missed you, Jacinta. You have no idea how much." Which was somewhat muffled by her greasy hair.

"I've missed you too, Nev." She murmured back. She pulled back from the hug and he took in her state of dress. His eyes went wide and his cheeks blushed pink. Luna bit her bottom lip to keep from laughing. "Yeah, didn't really have time to change. Escaping and all that." But his embarrassment quickly vanished as he saw the scars and bruises littering her form. His eyes flashed angrily, "Who?"

She sighed lightly, "You know very well who, Nev. The same people I trust for seven years. Maybe not directly, but they did order it," She crossed her arms over her chest and leaned away from him, "My guess is that we don't have a lot of time before they realize I'm missing; two questions: first can I borrow some real clothes and second how am I getting out of England."

Luna stepped forward and grasped her shoulder, "Let's get you back to Jacinta first, and then we'll talk about getting you out of here." The other girl hissed and pulled back from Luna's hand, "Don't call me that."

Neville's brow furrowed, "What?"

The girl hissed again, "Don't call me that name. Jacinta died. She died a long time ago." She wrapped her arms around her thin frame and ducked her head. Luna sighed sadly and glanced at Neville and he shrugged. Neville stepped toward the girl, "Okay, then. We won't call you that again. But we do need to call you something." He paused thoughtfully for a second, "How about Jace? I remember calling you that back in second year and you almost punched my lights out because you hated nicknames. How about now?"

She raised her head curiously, "Jace," the name rolled of her tongue, she paused and nodded her head, "I like it. Now do have a shower I could use. I think it's been a couple of years since my last bath." She smirked slightly.

Luna pointed to a hallway on the right. "Bathroom's the second door on the left, can't miss it. I'll grab you some clothes and Neville can whip us up some lunch." Jace nodded and disappeared down the hall. Luna followed Neville into the modern kitchen. Luna hopped onto the island and Neville grabbed pans, bread, butter and cheese.

He fired up the stove and watched Luna as he buttered the bread and added the cheese. Grilled cheese, simple but it always made them feel better on their worst days. "Plan in place?" he started conversationally. Luna picked at her worn nails and nodded, "Just need to ring Gormeister to transfer the accounts, get her on a train or plane to Timbuktu, get out of England and we're golden."

Neville smirked, "So not much then." Luna hit his shoulder playfully. She hopped off the counter and headed to their bedroom to grab a few of her old things for Jace. While there, she grabbed a backpack bewitched with an Undetectable Extension Charm. She stuffed in bare essentials: spare clothes, the Gifts, and a few of Jacinta Potter's old things. Jace may not be her any longer but surely she would want old Potter and Black relics. She zipped it closed and left it outside the bathroom door.

She knocked quietly and called through the wood, "Jace? I've got a few things here for you. I've left them in a pack just next to the door. Grab it whenever and there are some of my old clothes laying on it. Neville's fixing up grilled cheese and soup for you, so just come back to the kitchen when you're ready." Just as she got to the end of the hall the bathroom door cracked open and she heard a faint "thank you".

* * *

Neville and Luna were cutting up tomatoes, sending sly looks to each other and maybe occasionally bumping hips; then came a sound that sounding like a cat hacking something up. They simultaneously looked up to see Jace looking clean and, in honesty, just better.

"Merlin, I don't know whether to get sick or just coo over you. Seriously," she pointed at the two, "You two are disgustingly in love. How long have you been together?" She gazed curiously at them. It was a bit of a shock and they glanced at each other then back at her. They shrugged their shoulders simultaneously and said together, "About ten years,"

Jace crinkled her nose, "Now that was just disturbing. You're one of those couples aren't you? Like Ron when he was dating…" she trailed off with the wash of painful memories of her former best friend. She wrapped her arms around her middle and bit her lip as tears threatened to come out. Luna walked over to her and wrapped her arm around her shoulder to support her.

Jace did look better, her skin clean and dressed in an olive-green Henley and oversized gray cardigan. She also had a pair of black leggings and brown slip-ons. And her dark auburn hair tied up in a messy bun. She almost looked human again, excepting her dead eyes and the numerous scars littering her form.

"How…" she croaked, "How long has it been since…" she trailed off but they understood. Neville sighed, "It's been about ten years since the war ended. It officially ended May 2, 1998 and now it's September 2008. You've been in there a long time Jace. Sorry we didn't get to you sooner."

Jace smiled bitterly, "Don't. I'm just thankful that you did. It's nice to know some didn't abandon me."

Luna scoffed, "Not all of us betrayed you. Most of the D.A., actually: Dean, Seamus, Padma, Alicia, Anthony, and… Nigel he was crushed when he saw you being dragged away. We all were, you were our leader, our defender… our savior and it wasn't just you who was betrayed, it was all of us. We couldn't believe what they did and how they treated you. You, Jace, have been saving us for… since you were eleven and then they just throw you in a cage. They helped us form this plan, but they couldn't act with us. Too many people and it would never work. Neville and I hate the way the Wizarding community has become. Your imprisonment was only the beginning. The Wizarding World has changed drastically since you were imprisoned and everyone ignores it. They imprisoned you Jace because you represent change; you have been at the start of all change."

"We never gave up on freeing you, Jace. You're our best friend. I'm so sorry the way things turned out, but you're free now. And they can't stop you." Luna hugged Jace with all her strength.

Jace's eyes were shiny, "You're my best friend too Luna." She said, returning the hug, kissing the blonde's hair. "Now," she spoke freeing herself, "Where's the food? I'm starving."

* * *

The three of them were crowded around the Longbottoms' island when Jace spoke, "So how am I getting out of England?" she took a big bite of her grilled cheese sandwich while Luna pulled out a small rectangular device and pressed the black screen. It lit up and she pressed it a few more times and held it to her ear.

"Wha…" Jace spoke with a mouthful of bread and cheese. "Cell phone," Neville interrupted her, "And chew with your mouth closed!" Jace snapped her mouth closed and scowled playfully at him, earning her a smile. She swallowed her food and stared at Luna, who was gibbering in a random tongue into the phone. Jace blanched, technology had changed since she was imprisoned, "Last time I saw a cell phone, it was heavy little box. And now it's…" She sighed and Neville squeezed her hand sympathetically.

"The Muggle and Wizarding have changed a lot since you were imprisoned. Technology is getting smaller and thinner. The world's getting simpler and more complicated at the same time. The world you left Jace, is not the one you found again. And wizards are finding that we don't have to live in the Dark Ages any more. That Muggles are probably more advanced than us, without magic. Luna and I've adapted to living in the Muggle world and working in the Wizards'. It's strange but then again, it's the future."

Jace looked at his face. He was right. It was the future. She could tell by him. He was closer to thirty than twenty. He wasn't seventeen anymore. While she, she had never gotten to be seventeen. She was born a warrior, bred to be a warrior; never a child, always the soldier. But the world didn't need her anymore; it was time for her rest. There would come a day when she would be needed, till that day she would just have to wait.

Luna came back over to them and said, "That was Gormeister, it's done." Neville nodded, understanding while Jace looked at her confused.

Luna explained, "When you were imprisoned, the goblins locked down your vaults since you were the part of a Noble and Ancient House. The ministry and others," it went unspoken the others were her former family and friends, "tried to gain access: laws and permits and other legal jargon, but since the goblins are not ministry-affiliated they sealed your vaults until you were released. That or your will as read, but since you don't have a will the money would have gone to the goblins and that's a lot of money that would be more valuable if you were alive. So while the ministry tried to gain access, Neville and I worked with your account manager to move it at the time of your release, ministry-sanctioned or otherwise."

Neville held up a hand, "Meaning, if you escape, legal or not, all your funds will be moved to a bank of your choice. Gormeister set up an account in Switzerland. All the money from your accounts will be transferred, along with family heirlooms. No one can touch, except you." Luna slid a bank document over to her and handed her a quill, "Your new life starts when you sign on the dotted line."

The quill looked familiar. Jace looked over the document quickly and everything seemed to be in order and she looked at the quill again, so Neville spoke, "It's a blood quill. They have to verify it's you. Sorry, I know your past with them, but it's necessary." Their gaze dropped to her left hand, above the slashed runes faded but still visible,  _I must not tell lies._ Jace swallowed but shook her head, "Just need to get over it." She signed her full name quickly,  _Lady Jacinta Dorea Potter I._ She slid it away and Luna handed her another. Jace took it hesitantly, Luna smiled, "Thought you might want to do that."

It was a Muggle name change form, Luna continued, "Susan Bones works in the Ministry of Justice. She's a friend and will help you get set up." She handed her a regular pen and Jace filled it out quickly.

She was now Jacinta Black. Sirius had told her on their first and last Christmas together, when his name had been cleared, he wanted to adopt her. He had already filled out the paperwork naming her his heir but he wanted them to be a real family. It was the best Christmas present she had ever received. Too bad it had never happened. He died before they could do it. Another part of her family dead.

He would be happy to see her take his name. Jacinta Potter died ten years earlier and Jace Black had risen from her ashes.

* * *

"Now, where do I go from here?" Jace asked once Luna sent the forms via some new wizard mailing service involving flames and Floo Powder. Luna bit the inside of her cheek. She pulled out a Muggle credit card from her wallet and slid it to Jace.

"We drop you at the airport and you by a ticket at a kiosk." Jace's face fell a bit. Was getting rid of that easy? Luna sighed, "The less we know about where you are going, that safer it will be for me and Neville to escape. I don't want it to be like this Jace but it's honestly easier. Neville and I have to disappear, people will trace everything we did back to us and we refuse to let you be sent back there. We'll leave in a little while. I'm sorry Jace if there were any other way we would take it, but it will be easier if we split up."

Jace's eyes watered and her lip wobbled, "Will – will I ever see you again?" Luna pulled the older (or was it younger?) girl into a hug and whispered, "I don't know. Just know Neville and I never gave up, not until we got you safe, that we love you because you are our best friend."

Jace hugged her tighter, "I love you too, Luna."

Luna cupped her face, "Then stay safe."

"Always."

* * *

Jace waved goodbye to Luna and Neville from Heathrow Airport as they drove to King's Cross. The Hogwarts train had already departed a few hours before so they would hopefully be in the clear. Knock on wood. Jace turned back to the sliding glass doors and stepped threw them.

She tugged the straps on her backpack tighter and readjusted the hood of her borrowed windbreaker. She kept her face down and her skin covered. No need to frighten the public with her appearance. She stayed clear of the guards and anyone really. She stepped up to the ticket counter and played with the credit card that bared her name (apparently get money in the Wizarding world was done faster than possible, plus she saved the world, that gave her a little special treatment)

She got to the counter and looked at the departing flights. "What can I get you love?" asked an older woman with brown turning gray.

"Erm – ticket to…" she scanned the board. She spotted a city that she had read about under her cupboard. She had always wanted to travel, being a fugitive wasn't the best reason but it was a good one.

"One-way to Budapest." She said turning her gaze back to the woman.

She smiled warmly, "That's a bit pricy, love. You have the money?" Jace tossed her the card. "There's seats still available, but only in first class?" Jace sighed and gave a strained, "Yeah, just give me whatever. I don't care." The woman who's name plate said, 'Judy' " Okay, one one-way first-class ticket to Budapest. You have your passport?" Jace held it up (the Wizarding world can get any document in a time-crunch) "Okay, love you're all set. Have a safe flight."

Jace readjusted her hood and headed toward the terminal. A few minutes later she was in line at security. It wasn't too bad. There was just one hiccup.

"Excuse me miss, but you need to take off the hood, please." said a man.

Jace sighed and shakily lowered the hood. She heard the sharp intake of breaths around her and slight gasps. "Can we just get this over with please?"

The man shook himself out of his stupor, "Do you need me to…"

"I need you to do your job and let me get on my plane. It is a scar, happened a long time ago. Now please get back to doing your job, sir." Jace said calmly, holding back a snarl.

The man nodded and checked her through and the image of her bag showed a cell phone like Luna's, two books and a few clothes. Merlin bless magic. They checked her ticket and passport. Before she left, the man asked again, "How old are you?"

She would be closer to twenty-eight but being time-locked for ten years…

"Eighteen."

"Running away from home?"

"Home no longer exists."

"Family?"

"Dead. Long time ago."

"Anyone I need to or can contact for you?"

"It's only been me for a long time."

"Have a safe flight."

"Have a nice day."

She practically ran to her gate to see they were starting to board. She got in line behind a man a few inches taller than her in a silver-gray suit and readjusted her hood. She gave pass to the women at the desk and followed the other passengers onto the plane.

She was directed into first class and took the seat nearest the window. She shoved her backpack under her seat and clicked her seatbelt into place. She slouched in her seat and tapped the ticket against her leg. She had never been on an airplane before and honestly she just wanted to get out of England. She bounced her leg up and down and just waited for ministry officials to come crashing through the door and drag her off the plane.

But they never came; the flight attendants went through the checklist and sealed the door. She was biting her lip when the man who was in front of her came over to the empty seat beside her. She froze up. The damn ministry was already on the plane. Then he did something unexpected.

"This seat taken?" he asked. His accent wasn't British but American. That lessened her nerves a bit but she was still jittery. She couldn't make her mouth work, so she opted for shaking her head.

He nodded and unbuttoned his jacket as he sat down. Then he messed with the seatbelt and belted himself in. He sighed slightly and she turned her gaze back to the window, biting her nail and bouncing her leg. Is this man going to take her back? What is he going to do?

"First time flying?" his voice was gravely and she could detect a "country twang" as they called it but surprisingly soothing. She sat up a bit and nodded, "Yeah. You could tell?"

"You looked a bit nervous kid. I figured you flying for the first time." She snorted lightly, "You flying by yourself?" she nodded again, "Mmhmm" She glanced at him, and then dropped her gaze to her nails to fiddle with them. He looked to be a little older than her real age, early to mid-thirties. He would be described as "ruggedly handsome". He clearly worked out, she could tell by the bulging muscles under his smart suit. Possibly former soldier turned contractor, that or he was a business man who really liked to work out. What's he want with a teenage-looking freak like her?

"Got family there or you taking a – what do you kids call them – graduation trip? You look like you could be Hungarian. Are you?" he asked and she could feel his gaze on her. She shook her head, maybe she should flash him her scar, the one that covered half her face not the lightning one, and maybe he'd leave? Then again it was nice talking to people who have no clue who you are.

She was starting over as Jace Black wasn't she? So, make nice with the snappy-dressing-possibly-former-miliary-business-guy.

"No I'm not Hungarian for all I know and I never actually graduated as far as I'm concerned. I just need to get out of England. And I thought: what the hell? I've always wanted to visit Hungary. I used to read this travel book I found in my relative's attic and even though it was a few years out of date, it depicted this beautiful city and… whenever things got difficult I dreamed I was there." It was a slightly abridged version of her tale and she'd probably only see this man today…

She forgot to knock on wood.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took me so long to update. I've had the flu for the past week and it was Christmas and inspiration has been hiding. If you give lots of reviews I'll update sooner. Promise!
> 
> Did you spot the iconic Deathly Hallows quote? And guess who the snappy-dressed, possibly former military guy is? Please, I'll give you a cookie. (Then again this is the Internet and I can't send you it, so I'll have it for you) :3
> 
> Love, Rule27NeverKnowinglyBeSerious


	3. Budapest pt. 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own The Avengers or Harry Potter. I’m pretty sure I am not JK Rowling or Marvel, so…
> 
> For those of you who guessed Clint/Hawkeye. Congratulations! It was Clint. I had the image of him from Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, because Jeremy Renner looked so yummy in that movie. Fangirl moment!
> 
> I will not snob at Coulson. It was a good guess but Coulson doesn’t appear to be in his mid-thirties. And I don’t think he was involved with the Budapest mission, it was just Clint and Nat. 
> 
> Definitely not Tony. He has his own private jet, so he would definitely not be slumming it on a commercial flight. Plus this is around the timeframe of Iron Man. So he was in the desert or just getting out of the desert, so no… plus I think Coulson was wrangling him at that time, so that’s another point against Coulson
> 
> Steve! Really Steve! Steve wasn’t found until a few months before the Avengers in 2012. So no, absolutely no. Thank Merlin nobody mentioned Thor: he hasn’t even been sent to Midgard yet. 
> 
> Then again this is a work of fiction and I have no idea when Budapest took place. I feel like they should do a movie about that to get Clint and Nat’s backstories in there. Maybe? Anybody with me?
> 
> Well anyways, Part 2… *Beware mild cursing*

* * *

Jace tucked adjusted the hood of her windbreaker as she wandered toward the sliding doors of the Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport. She peered out of the corner of her eye to spy **(A/N: Meh-heh :3)** the man that sat next to her on the plane. He was nice she had decided.

Even though she looked like a teenage hooligan who was in a knife fight and he was a dapper-looking business man (she couldn’t decide if he was ex-military or he really liked working out) he had taken the time to talk to her. Later she had found out he couldn’t stand flights with his partner (she hadn’t figured out if it was business or romantic) because she wasn’t one to entertain him during the flight.

The flight itself was little over two hours and she had never learned his name. Just that he was American, he had excellent tastes in fashion and he was headed to Budapest for a business trip.

They mostly talked about her. How it was her first flight, and all that. Mostly she spun a tale of how her family was dead and she had dropped out of her final year of school because of it. She tried to fill in the gaps of the last ten years because he was Muggle and had no idea how magic really worked. When he had asked about friends, she told him they had a falling out over her quitting school or something like that.

She told him of her boarding school and that it hurt to leave England because it was all she had ever known. “But I feel better in some weird, twisted way. Like I can finally breathe again. I want to start over and if starting over means running away… then I’m glad I ran. I never really fit in anyway.” She said to him.

They talked a little of modern topics, but she pushed back into the 80s and 90s because she had actually grew up in them and didn’t have a clue of most of the things he was talking about. He caught on and asked why she liked the older topics and she had replied, “Being in boarding school most of the year and the only communication basis we had was letters, you don’t really learn much of the outside world. And the months we did have off for summer were generally filled with homework.”

He told her, “Yeah, England’s weird.”

She agreed.

He had to head back over to his partner when the pilot announced they would be landing soon and he told her it was a pleasure to meet her. She replied likewise.

Now she was here standing clutching her backpack, watching him walk away. She also spotted a gorgeous redhead woman walking with him. She appeared to be a few years older than her physical age, being in her mid to late twenties. The man just as they were walking to the doors caught her eye. She blanched for a second (being caught) but caught herself and managed a shy, little wave.

He gave her a small smile and swift nod of his head indicating farewell. Jace sighed and stared around the busy airport. She had made it this far… now what?

She rolled her shoulders and walked towards the doors. She saw her plane buddy slip into a sleek black town car. Figures. He was a sophisticated businessman. She turned away from the departing car and headed over to the taxi stand.

Of course she picked a city where only 30% of the population speaks English. She and the dispatcher communicated in broken English since her Hungarian was nonexistent. By the end of a frustrating twenty minutes she was nestled into a cigarette-smelling cab that had honestly seen better days.

She asked the dispatcher for hotel recommendations and he gave the cabbie the address. Apparently he was friends with the cousin of the owner and could get her a decent rate. As long as it had four walls, a ceiling and a shower; she didn’t care.

Another twenty minutes rolled by as they drove into the city. It was a lovely ancient city. Older than London. But she could see the encroachment of modern day. Beautiful and giant stone buildings slowly being surrounded with modern steel and glass. She caught a glimpse of London as they flew away. It was almost the same. All the old historical architecture being swallowed by modern technology. It was beautiful yet startling at the same time.

And the wizards… well the wizards were still stuck in the 17th century. Jace wondered what will happen when the wizards finally noticed the Muggle world has moved on and become more advanced, _without magic_. She chuckled silently. That would truly be a sight to behold; since it’s already happening.

She mulled over her thoughts when the already dim sunlight, began to fade. Droplets started to appear on the taxi exterior and picked up fast. In seconds the city of Budapest was lost to her sight, nothing but blurry lights and rain. _In some ancient cultures rain symbolizes rebirth and new life. It’ll be nice to start over,_ her thoughts whisper.

* * *

**A/N: I have no idea what a Hungarian accent sounds like, so I will not be typing it out. I do not wish to offend people.**

She peered out the rain-splattered window to see and vague outline of a modern hotel. She slipped the cabbie the correct number of Forints (she stopped at an ATM before leaving the airport) and shouldered her bag before slipping out into the downpour.

She sprinted to the overhang and the revolving door. She pushed and found herself in a magnificent lobby. At least thirty-foot ceilings with two large marble columns. Pristine sandy stone floor mapped the entire room. There were rounded balconies flocking the entire room as she spun to take it all in. Modern but comfy-looking furniture was spread throughout it. Purple orchids lay in ceramic pots on marble-countertop side tables throughout the room.   

She had to take a moment. _An airport cabbie dispatcher_ could get her a decent rate? She might have to send him some flowers or diamonds. She shook her head to clear her thoughts and heard a splatter sound. She blanched and looked down at her soaked person.

The rain did not spare her and she was thoroughly and completely soaked. She winced as she squeaked as she crossed the pristine floor to the clerk.

She adjusted her hood as she approached the clerk, who gave her a disapproving onceover. Not the best first impression. She smiled nervously, “Hi.”

He raised his eyebrow, “Hello. Are you lost?” Thank Merlin he speaks better English than the cab dispatcher. She did not want to spend another twenty minutes trying to communicate while she was freezing her ass off and soaking wet. She wasn’t even a little insulted when he asked her if she was lost.

She knew she looked awful and her thoughts danced back to the business man from the plane. What in Merlin’s name possessed him into chatting with her? Anyway back to getting that room.

She chuckled morosely, “No I’m not lost. May I inquire if you have any rooms available? Preferably the lowest rate?” She shot him an awkward smile. He gave her another appraising look. “Yeah, the – um- the plane lost my luggage and it’s pouring out and they always say dress for comfort when traveling.” Another awkward smile.

He chuckled slightly. And bingo, he was hers. “Well you’ve come into town on busy week. There’s several things going on this week, even I’m not sure on all of them; do you know how long you will be staying Miss…”

“Black, Jace Black. And um… I’m not entirely sure. I’ve – I just sort of left England and I really didn’t plan this far ahead.” The clerk gave her and unimpressed look, she bit her lip and continued, “Can you just give me a room for the week and I’ll renew it if I decide to stay longer.” He sighed and fiddled with his computer.

“All of our standard rooms have been booked. The next room available for a slightly higher rate is a…” a few keyboard clicks, “a parlor suite. The room will run you about 450€ a night, so for 7 nights that will be around… 3,150€. Now, will you be paying in cash or credit?”

* * *

As soon as Jace got into her room, she quickly found the door to the bedroom and crashed. It had been a long day; escaping England was easier and harder than she thought. Easy thing was that she escaped within several hours of her escape from prison. Hard thing was that she was cut off, not moneywise, but that she could no longer contact Luna or Neville to know if they were safe or not.

She was thankful for Luna’s contacts in the British and Wizarding government. They allowed her to escape with a new identity and all her funds safe in a Swiss bank. The Potters were already a wealthy family, she found out her 6th year after Sirius died. He had left everything in the Black vaults to her, another wealthy family. So it was transferred to the Potter vaults (it turns out the one she had been using since 1st year was just her trust vault and she gained complete access to the others when she turned seventeen)

She dumped her backpack on a chair in the main room (it had been enchanted with an Impervious charm, therefore it was dry compared to the rest of her) and stripped off her cold and wet clothes. She hung them to dry in the bathroom before she promptly crashed on her new and comfy bed. The soft and cool Egyptian cotton soothed her weary and scarred body. Before she knew it, she was dead to the world. 

* * *

Today marked the third day of Jace’s stay in Budapest. The first day she had spent exploring the hotel. It was absolutely gorgeous. It had 3 different bars and 2 restaurants; a luxury spa, which she used to her advantage, and almost every amenity under the sun. It was definitely an upgrade compared to her cage in Azkaban.

The second day she had been given some strange looks from the staff when she realized she had been wearing the same clothes for the last few days. They were comfy and in good shape, plus her last connection to Luna but she decided she needed to add to her wardrobe.

The hotel was situated between, what the locals call, Fashion Street. She departed the hotel with her backpack in hand and a shiny black credit card. She felt almost like a child racing up and down the streets weaving through different shops. Petunia had rarely taken her shopping, mostly for Dudley and groceries, but the few times when she needed something she couldn’t get from Dudley (i.e. bras/tampons) it was one of the better parts of her childhood.

But now she had money, and the freedom under a new name to spend as much as her heart desired. She never really cared for money, since she had enough for a couple lifetimes over, but it was always nice to splurge on a cute pair of shoes.

One of her first stops was a beauty shop. She didn’t know a spell to hide them and she hadn’t found the courage to visit the foreign wizards version of Diagon Alley. The Muggle shopkeeper had directed her to the skin creams and such and taught her how to apply it properly so it covered the scars. She only needed to apply it to her hands, wrists and face because her body was too littered with scars to cover every inch. She also decided to wear longer sleeves and lots of jackets.

It was late afternoon by the time she left her final shop. (She had so many bags and she was getting hungry). She bid the small shopkeeper, who sold delicious-looking leather jackets, farewell and used her bottom to push the door open since her arms and hands were swathed in bags. She turned suddenly as the door shut and ran into a wall of solid muscle.

“Oof!” she cried out as she lost her balance. Then strong arms wrapped around her shoulders and steadied her. “Alright there?” a familiar voice asked her. Her eyes flashed up to his and brightened in recognition.

“I know you… you’re the man who sat next to me on the plane.” She accused him. He blinked down at her and smiled in recognition, “Hi! Didn’t expect to run into you again.” She shook her head in agreement. He wasn’t in his business suit, but rather a leather jacket, gray t-shirt and dark jeans. **(A/N: Picture Jeremy Renner from _The Bourne Legacy_ )** He let his hands on her shoulders drop and stepped back from her to look at her, then chuckled, “Especially with half of the streets merchandise.”  

She mock-scoffed, “I would toss my hand back in dismissal but seeing as I can’t… I’ll agree with you. Give a girl a credit card and watch her buy out the whole street.” They chuckled together for a moment as he spied her purchases again and bit his lip, “Do you need… ya know… help with that?” and gestured to her bags.

She slumped in relief, “If you do that I will declare you a saint.” He glanced over her shoulder quickly and flickered his gaze back to her. He nodded silently and picked up half her purchases. “Do we need to get you a cab or…”

She shook her head quickly and continued up the street, “My hotel’s right around the corner, the Kempinski.” His eyes seemed to bug out for a moment and then he quickly followed her.

They walked in comfortable silence until they reached her hotel. They entered the lobby and she gestured for the front desk to send someone over. A few minutes later, they handed the bags off to two bellhops, who proceeded to take the bags to her room. She turned back to her companion with a small smile on her face, “Thanks again for your help… Dear Morgana… I don’t even know your name.” She bit her lip, embarrassed and stared at his shoes, a nice pair of dark boots.

He chuckled slightly, “Name’s Clint. Clint Barton, and seems pertinent to mention I have no idea who you are too.” She tilted her face up to meet his gaze, “I’m Jace. Jace P-Black.” She stumbled slightly over her last name, “Black.” She said with a bit more confidence.

He nodded and held out his hand, “It’s a pleasure to meet you Miss Black.”

She took it, “Same here, Mr. Barton.”

* * *

It was nearing the end of week she had paid for and Jace had to decide whether or not she wanted to stay in Budapest or travel elsewhere. She was currently standing in front of her suite’s bathroom mirror examining her slightly wavy auburn hair.

She was clad in a pair of sleep pants and her tank top from the prison. Why she kept was beyond anyone, mostly it was a reminder that she didn’t want to go back. She ran her hands up and down her arms, probing her scars. Most of her new wardrobe was long-sleeved and jeans. So, she’d be covered from shoulder to ankle. The cover-up cream she had bought would cover the rest that were visible. Now she was deciding what to do with her hair.

She had had it her natural color all her life, maybe it was time to change that. She had found a spell to change her eye color, so they were now emerald green instead of her usual hazel.

Lily’s eyes.

When Hagrid had first come to get her, he had told her she looked like her mother with her father’s eyes. Her skin was pale and now she had bright green eyes. What should she change her hair to? She had always loved her long, dark auburn locks, but she had changed her name. Now it was time to change her appearance.

That’s it! Jace Black. Black hair. Brilliant! She tapped her wand against her head and presto! Her once mahogany was now a gorgeous ebony. She chuckled now she looked like her father with her mother’s eyes (sans the glasses). Classy. She seriously hoped the ministry was as big of idiots now as they were back then.

She nodded in approval and left the bathroom, but she couldn’t shake the feeling something was missing. She flopped down on her room’s sofa and opened her new bag she bought a few days before. It was a small cross-body bag with a pretty tan-red-black plaid fabric. She hadn’t bothered to unpack any of her new belongings, just stuff them away in the bag.

It was small on the outside, but being a witch she hadn’t let that stop her and add an Undetectable Extension Charm. Now it was bigger on the inside. Take that laws of physics.

She laced up her high tops and shouldered her bag. It was nearly dinner time, maybe she ought to try a new restaurant nearby or something, and think over whether or not to leave Budapest.

She soon found herself in the lobby and went over to one of the side tables to pick up a newspaper. Since it was a hotel that ran on foreign business, they had to cater to clientele. She found a copy of the Guardian and began to peruse. She stopped dead on the third page.

**_Terror in London_ **

**_By: Rebecca Cabot_ **

**_Sunday, September 7 th 2008_ **

_This past Monday, terror struck the Waterloo bridge. Witnesses say the bridge began to shake uncontrollably and rattled the moving cars. As people began to evacuate the bridge seemed to “snap” as all cars and people not on a support beam fell into the Thames._

_The estimated death toll is in the hundreds since divers have not retrieved all that fell. The police are saying charges were attached to the freestanding parts of the bridge, ensuring its collapse._

_Later there was a massive shootout at King’s Cross Station. Are the terrorists responsible for the shootout as well as the bridge collapse? The terrorists entered the station and began to fire into the crowd as witnesses put it._

_“It didn’t seem like guns though. More like, massive streaks of lights. They say that’s what happened to bridge as well.” Said student Aaron Wilkes, “My guess is mutants. Retaliation for the reform going on in America. Strike at them! Not us!”_

_Could this be the work of mutants? The Brotherhood of Mutants and other extremist group have not claimed responsibility for the attacks._

_Surprisingly, while several were injured, there were only two casualties at King’s Cross._

_We were told the victims were Neville Longbottom and his wife, Luna Longbottom and were said to be…_

Jace stopped reading after that. She let the newspaper fall from her hands and land on the floor. Poor Neville. Poor Luna. She had hoped that no word from them meant they had escaped. But they hadn’t…

They had died. For helping her escape.

She felt disgusted with herself. She had spent the past week shopping, and wining and dining (maybe not wining, but there had been other non-alcoholic drinks) whilst Neville and Luna had…

She swallowed to the bile down her throat. She stood abruptly went to the door marked ‘Stairwell’. She shoved the door open and sat back against it as it closed. She reached into her bag and dug around for the ring.

When she found it, she closed her eyes and turned it over thrice. Her watery eyes opened to see Luna smiling at her. That did it and the tears spilt onto her cheeks.

Luna hushed her, “Shh. It’s alright Jace; it’s not your fault.”

Jace choked and shuddered but didn’t speak.

“Jace. Look at me.” Luna commanded gently.

She raised her green eyes to Luna’s silver ones, “It is in no way your fault. Neville and I knew what we were getting into when we rescued you. And we had guessed that this was a possible outcome, but we wouldn’t change it.” Luna’s eyes softened, “Jace we don’t regret freeing you. You have your whole life ahead of you. Don’t waste it. Don’t waste Neville and I’s sacrifice. Because Jace you are worth it.”

Jace’s tears slowed and nodded her head, “Jace I love like a sister and I wouldn’t trade my life for anything in the world. Because _you_ made it better. _You_ made life worth living.” Luna sighed, “Jace I want you to promised me something…”

Jace nodded again, “I want you to promise you won’t call on me again. I don’t belong here. Neville and my mother are with me and I’m happy. Now you have to go find your happiness.” Jace bit her lip but nodded then stood as did Luna. “And Jace… don’t get caught. But if you do see them again… avenge us.”

* * *

It was Monday afternoon and Jace was in the lobby. She finished checking out and walked toward the revolving glass door. She stepped into it then into the bright sunlight. She pulled her aviators from her leather jacket and slipped them on.

She had a promise to keep and was damn well going to keep it. She placed her combat-boot-clad-feet one step in front of the other and walked away.

She had no idea where she was going to go or where she was going to end up. She was going to let the breeze fly where it takes her and find her happiness. She doesn’t break her promises and she never will.

* * *

She decided to walk to the train station and fly by the seat of her pants… or do what she did in London and flip a coin on a destination.  It was a little more than a mile and a half walk, but it was a pleasant 60° out and she was wearing one of her new outfits (Steve Madden combat boots, dark skinny jeans, a black off shoulder long sleeve tunic and her Myriad Ladies jacket). She knew she looked good, she just wish her former captors could see her now.

Now that would be trouble. Trouble she was happy to leave behind.

* * *

In hindsight, she should really stop thinking of things like that, because the universe loves proving her wrong. It really started when she turned the corner to see her airplane buddy.

 _Clint,_ she reprimanded herself. He was casually leaning against a black town car and seemed to be talking to the dark-haired man in front of him. He turned slightly to talk to the woman beside him. Judging by their attire it was a business lunch but not really business.

Like they wanted to meet up but didn’t want to talk business but then ended up talking about it anyway. Clint was in a blue button down and black pants. The woman had fire-red hair and was in a lacy blouse with a clack collar, tan jacket, and fitted black pants. Their companion was in a suit; apparently he hadn’t gotten the memo for the dress code.

She leaned casually against the building and waited for them to finish their conversation.

It didn’t take long for the woman to spot her. Jace was clad in all dark colors and stuck out like a sore thumb. The woman narrowed her eyes and nudged Clint. Clint’s eyes flickered over to her form and also narrowed.

Jace waved at him and gave him a small smile.

Clint only frowned and their companion noticed he had lost their attention, so he turned to Jace as well (following their eye line). Jace gave them a little wave and nervous smile. Clint cocked his head, like he knew her but was trying to place her. Now everyone one was frowning.

The staring was making Jace anxious so she fiddled with her hair. The stares intensified and Jace dropped her gaze. Her gaze caught the sight of her black hair and ding…

She faced them again with a look of surprise. She gestured to her hair and pulled on the strand she had been fiddling with. Then the looks became more confused. Their companion was getting fidgety and a little bit angry. Jace sighed and decided the only way to tell it was her was to tell him it was her.

“I DYED IT!” she shouted to Clint about 10 yards away. Clint’s expression turned to understanding and sucked in a breath and turned to his partner. He spoke to her quickly and gestured to Jace a few times before his partner nodded in approval and he strolled over to her.

He had a little look of confusion but was smiling nonetheless. “Miss Black?”

She snorted lightly, “Yeah, it’ me and you can call me Jace, Clint.” He nodded and looked at her and really looked at her, “The hair’s definitely new but I thought… the last time we met… you had hazel eyes, and now they’re bright green.”

She blanched, how do Muggles explain it again? “Oh! I got new contacts. Colored contacts.” Lie, she had her vision magically corrected before fifth year.

He nodded, and gave her a onceover, “You look good kid. No more,” he gestured wildly to her person, “Whatever it was you had before.

She smirked, “Like I said give a girl a credit card… shouldn’t you be wrapping up your meeting?” she asked, jerking her head to his partner and their business acquaintance.

He shook his head, “Nah, Natasha’s got this covered. Where you headed? More shops to clear out.” Jace rolled her eyes, “If you must know, I’m heading to the train station.”

His brow knot together, “Where you heading?” Jace shrugged her shoulders, “I dunno I’m going wherever the wind takes me.” He smirked, “Meaning you haven’t got a clue.” She giggled, “No, not a clue.” His eyes searched her person, “Hey where’s your…” but he was cut off by his partner yelling.

That’s when things went FUBAR.

One moment they were having a pleasant conversation, the next he was on top of her as gunshots ricocheted throughout the street. Then he was pulling her up and dashing around the corner. As Jace looked back she saw the red head following them as they sprinted up the street. The red head had a gun and was firing at several thugs who were following them (or at least trying to).

Clint had a firm grip on her upper arm that was sure to leave bruises.  They ran and dodged and ducked up and down the narrow streets of Budapest until they found themselves in an abandoned alley. Jace had no idea where they were and more importantly, no idea who the people she was with.

She wrenched herself out of Clint’s grasp and crouched against a nearby wall trying to catch her breath as the two, _obviously not_ businesspeople started arguing.

“What the hell happened?!”

“The mission went to shit that’s what happened!”

“I know that I was there! I mean how did it happen?!”

“Really Barton! You didn’t notice how twitchy the target became when she showed up?!”

“What does ‘she’ have to do with this? She’s a kid, Tash!”

“Look at her! She doesn’t exactly dress like a normal teenager would. At least not in Budapest.”

“I saw the way she’s dressed. She looks badass or like a teenage hooligan.” _Hooligan?_ “She doesn’t look Hungarian, because she not Hungarian!”

“Well the Baron didn’t know that. He thought she was one of ours! I tried to placate the accusations but he more and more paranoid, then he called out his goons while you were having a conversation with Little Miss Doe Eyes!”

 _Doe Eyes?_ “Doe eyes, really Tash?! How many times do I have to say it, _she is a kid_! I met her on the plane! I thought I never see her again.”

“Really how about a few days when you came in the meeting _late_ and with a stupid looking on your face.”

“I gotta tell you Tash, that wasn’t a look, that’s my face. And yes I ran into her again, while she was shopping and helped her carry her bags back to her hotel. That was it and I can’t believe what you are insinuating. For the final _fucking_ time, _SHE IS A KID_!”

Jace had enough, “You know what you can deal with your couple’s issue later, but right now we have people chasing after us and _you_ owe me an explanation for all of _this!”_ She pointed at Clint then made a wide hand gesture. Jace was still breathing heavy as Clint and Tash, or whatever her name is, shared similar looks.

Clint sighed heavily, “I’ll call in and ask Phil for an extraction. You can explain why the mission with FUBAR.” He cut her off as she tried to argue, “No buts Nat. In the meantime we gotta find a place to lay low till the extraction team can get here. I can bet you the Baron won’t let us leave Budapest any other way.”

He turned to Jace, “We’ll deal with you once we get someplace safe. You said you’d go where the wind would take you, right? Looks like you’ll be blowing away with us.”

Jace couldn’t do anything but gulp.

      

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author’s Note: Yes, Budapest is done and now onto SHIELD. Jace will meet Phil and Nick and smooth things over with Natasha. Then onto the Avengers!
> 
> I’m sorry about Luna and Neville being killed off-screen. I couldn’t figure out a way to kill them in Jace’s timeline, sorry. And I couldn’t have Luna and Neville live because of things that will happen later on. Again, sorry. 
> 
> Hey this story is also up on FanFiction.net. Just thought I should put that out there.
> 
> I start school again this week, so hopefully the next chapter will be up Saturday or Sunday. Reviews might encourage me to write faster! See you later!
> 
> Love, Rule27NeverKnowinglyBeSerious


	4. Welcome to SHIELD

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First off I am so, so, so sorry for this late update. Like I said in my author’s note January was a hectic month and February hasn’t been any better.
> 
> So anyways by popular demand Jace’s codename is (cue drum roll)… Nightingale!
> 
> It was between that, Grim and Raven were the top faves with Padfoot in last place. Thanks everybody, that saves me a coin flip.
> 
> PS: there is a new poll on my FF.net profile for who would play Jace in the Avengers. Vote and tell me who you think should play her. I am also open to any suggestions, just put it in a review.
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own The Avengers or Harry Potter. I’m pretty sure I am not JK Rowling or Marvel, so... 
> 
> It is now time to move on to SHIELD. Dun, dun, duh…

It was around seven in the evening when Clint stepped out of the safehouse to grab them something to eat. They had found this place after running for a few more miles through the city. It was certainly a downgrade from her last place. But it wasn’t nearly as bad as her prison cell and after spending ten years living in a cupboard under the stairs, she was used to crappy places.

She and Natasha were in the small living room, waiting for Clint to return. Natasha had practically been staring daggers at Jace since they met up a few hours before. For the past hours, Clint had been mediating between the two women, but now that he was gone the tension had reached its peak.

Natasha was sitting on the floor cleaning her knives, occasionally flashing her eyes over to Jace, like she wanted to throw one at her head. Jace was perched on the arm of the coach ready to flee at any moment if Natasha did decide to kill her. Jace had no idea what she had done to tick Natasha off but it was now starting to make her mad.

As Natasha’s eyes flicked over to her once again, Jace bit her lower lip and well fuck it…

“Have I got something on my face?” she asked.

Natasha’s celery-green eyes flashed angrily, “No.”

Jace breathed harshly through her nose, ready to snap back but something stopped her. She had no clue where she was and this woman might be the key to her fate. Maybe it would be better to not upset her… more than she already is.

Jace sighed wearily and pushed a hand through her hair, “Want to tell me what it is about me that’s upsetting you? Maybe then…” she trailed off and looked over at Natasha.

Natasha inhaled through her nose and couldn’t seem to meet Jace’s eyes.

“I-I” she tried to say but ended up shaking her head and turning away. Jace pursed her lips and also tried to say something but nothing came to mind. She had no problem with the Natasha; the woman was intimidating as hell but now just looked insecure.

Something that probably didn’t settle well with Natasha.

So Jace did the only thing she really knew anymore.

“I’m sorry.” Jace sighed, got up and walked over to the window. She stared out at the dark street below and leaned her head against the window pane. Her gaze flicked to the sky, the one thing she missed from her past was the sky, especially the stars that filled it.

“What? Why are you sorry?” Natasha croaked.

Jace held back a bitter chuckle, “I’m used to being blamed for everything. That I’m always at fault… so… I just used to apologizing. So I’m sorry for whatever I did or did not do. Or for even future faults, I sorry.” Jace sighed again.

Then there was the awkward silence.

After a few minutes, Jace heard Natasha shift from her place on the floor and then she came into view. Natasha leaned back against the wall across from Jace and stood there in contemplation.

Then she spoke, “It’s not specifically your fault. I – I don’t know what’s wrong. I don’t hate you but I can’t say that I like you. The only things I truly like are my knives, but I don’t like – I don’t like…” She broke off again furiously shaking her head.

Jace cocked her head, “You don’t like what? My hair? My face? My brilliantly annoying and gorgeous accent?”

Natasha delicately snorted and shook her head.

Then the awkward silence came back, Jace turned her gaze to the window again and Natasha stared at the wall in front of her.

Natasha mumbled her next words so quietly that Jace almost missed them, “I don’t like the way Clint looks at you.”

Jace’s eyes almost popped out of her skull and she whipped her head toward Natasha, “How Clint looks at me? Looks? What look? There is not nor has there ever been a look between me and Clint. No, absolutely not.”

Natasha snorted again, “Not in the way you think.” She sighed, “It’s a look I’ve seen before, a look that almost cost Clint his job.”

Jace scrunched her face in confusion and curiosity, “Where? When?”

Natasha thinned her lips, “When Clint rescued me.” Jace sucked in a breath and bit her lip again, then her eyes went to the near-black sky. She smiled sadly, “You want to be the only one Clint’s rescued.” Natasha was jealous. She, now, wasn’t the only one who he had rescued. Crazy but true.

Then Jace broke the tension by snorting and Natasha flashed a deadly look at her, “Oh, he’s too late. Far, far too late. I’m too far gone to be rescued Natasha, too broken, too hurt. The only reason I’m still alive is because I made a promise to someone. That I would try and fix myself, to find someone to help fix me. It’s too late Natasha. I can’t be rescued because the person I was died a long time ago and you can’t bring back the dead.”

Jace folded her arms into her stomach, because as much as the words hurt they were true and nothing could change that.

Natasha gazed over at her. She had seen that look before as well, whenever she looked in the mirror. Someone who believed that they didn’t deserve to be fixed, not can’t.

Now she had seen what Clint had seen. The lost little girl whom the world hated. Obviously she didn’t know her story, but she would bet it was similar to her own.

“Everyone deserves to be saved, Jace. It’s never too late.” Those big, emerald eyes flickered up to her celery ones. Natasha could see the pain, the scars, the hurt, the mistrust. Again, they were her eyes staring back.

One day the pain would stop, the scars would fade and the hurt would disappear. Until that day, they would have to try to build each other back up. Make their foundation strong again. Time heals all wounds, right?

They’d probably both be old and gray and only be half-way, but they’d try. They’d try.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

The extraction team that Clint had called in couldn’t get them out of Budapest due to something with the people they were supposed to… well let’s just say they had friends in very high places and now Clint and Natasha were enemies of the state.

The trio was now working more efficiently due to the girls’ heart-to-heart and wasn’t going to kill each other anytime soon. But the plan was to get a car and cross over to Austria, hit Vienna, be extracted, and taken to some secret base in Israel. How they convinced their boss to let Jace come along during all this was beyond her.

Jace wasn’t exactly peachy-keen to meet some secret-underground-government/spy organization, but they weren’t exactly giving her a choice and hiding from two secret government organizations was not at the top of her list, so she went with the lesser of two evils and tagged along.

Jace quietly wondered what she was doing when she went to get their transport. Why she should just cut it and run? Maybe it was Luna’s ghost quietly whispering to trust Clint and Natasha. Who knows?

When she got back, Clint had purple hair and a couple of piercings on his face and Natasha was platinum blond with way too much lipstick.

Jace’s eyebrows almost vanished into her hairline, “Sorry did I fail to get the memo about how we’re stopping at a metal concert?”

Clint sighed heavily and shot a pointed look at Natasha, “Well the authorities know our faces, we thought it be better to go disguised rather than risk it.”

Natasha tossed a bag at her with a smirk, “There’s yours.” Jace frowned, “But I wasn’t involved with the mission, why would they recognize me?”

Clint grimaced, “It’s just a precaution Jace. We need to get out of here as quietly and quickly as possible. Better safe than sorry.”

Jace nodded and peered into the plastic bag, “You’ve got to be kidding me?” And shot a look at Natasha, whose smirk grew and Clint gave a pained smile, which looked like he wasn’t trying to laugh. “Bloody Americans.” Jace grumbled as she walked to the bathroom.

“I’m Russian.” Natasha sang at her. “If this is a Russian joke, I obviously missed the punch line.” Jace shouted back.

* * *

They were getting funny looks from the extraction agents. They had to be. They looked like a couple of punk-era rejects. Natasha with her platinum hair and practically-painted-on leather pants. Clint with the purple hair, piercings and fake tats up and down his arms. Then there was Jace. Her guess this was sort of some introduction ritual into the group. She was wearing a bald cap, her top was practically all zippers, paired with her leather jacket and a red and black tutu.

Yeah, truce over. She was killing Natasha.

When one baby agent covered up his snicker with a cough, Jace flashed a deadly green gaze, and hissed. All the agents, even Clint jumped, it was so realistic. Natasha shot her a look and Jace returned it innocently. Natasha shook her head.

“That’s all it takes? Less than a day and a half and you already love her more than me.” Clint bristled dramatically and huffed. Natasha wrapped her arm around Jace’s shoulders, ignoring her slight flinch, “What can I say? I’m a sucker for girls with no hair.”

Both Jace and Clint clicked their tongues at her and Natasha gave her usual breathy-laugh-snort-thing.

They had left Vienna on a cargo plane bound for Tel Aviv some time ago and were due to land any time soon. Clint kept telling her stories of the infamous Phil Coulson, the misfit collector. He was literally SHIELD’s top agent and handler.

Apparently Coulson had approved of her getting a classified version telling of what the agency was. SHIELD stood for Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division. Sounds to her like someone really wanted their initials to spell SHIELD. She told Clint that and he said she get along just fine.

Basically they were the last line of defense between the human world and the supernatural one.

Yeah she’d definitely fit right in.

The flight was just over 3 hours, so Clint gave her run-down of what to expect. She would met Coulson, be debriefed about Budapest, and if they thought she was agency-material, they’d try to recruit her.

Jace wasn’t so sure what she thought of the last one. She had plenty of dealings of shady government agencies in the past and wasn’t looking to repeat them. Who knows, they might already know about the Ministry and her. She struggled to stay calm and keep her powers under wraps.

Ever since she had been freed, she had been experiencing little bursts of magic. Her guess? It was from the ten years she had spent in those magic-binding chains, giving her a surplus of magic that was too much for her core to handle. She had been releasing it slowly but the build-up was formidable and too much emotion could trigger an episode where her magic could explode and possibly harm someone.

Hmm, maybe it wasn’t the best idea to come here.

She fiddled with her black lace gloves. She had bought them to cover up the rune scars in case the makeup had come off. Luckily enough they blended in with disguise and she could get away with them.

The pilot’s voice came over the intercom , saying they’d be landing soon and to return to their seats.

The landing was smooth and minutes later they were walking down the cargo ramp, where they were met by a few black SUVs and an older-looking man, maybe in his forties, in a black suit and tie with black sunglasses. He had brown hair and a receding hairline.

He leveled his gaze to the trio and his brow furrowed and his lips quirked just barely. He took off his sunglasses and blinked at them in the harsh Israeli sunlight.

“New look?” he asked calmly. Jace wondered if you had to learn in spy school how to keep your face like that. Her thoughts flashed back to the baby agent. No, that was all Agent Coulson.

“Jace and I blame Natasha.” Clint told his superior. Jace and Natasha turned to him. Jace said, “I blame you. You’re the one who gave Natasha the money and no specifications. It’s all on you birdbrain.”

Clint squawked indignantly and Natasha smirked.

Agent Coulson turned his gaze to her and stuck out his hand, “Pleasure to meet you, Agent Phil Coulson.”

Jace took it without hesitation, “Jace Black.” Still haven’t gotten used to that.

“Ms. Black, as you are aware you got caught in the middle of an active mission, compromising one of our agent’s identities.” He ignored it when Clint hissed, “ _Coulson”_ and Natasha flickered her eyes to him, “We need to debrief you and try to make sure that it doesn’t happen again. I need you to come with us, please.”

Time had to have been moving faster, because her sarcasm was coming back, “That wasn’t a request, was it?”

“No ma’am.”

“First, don’t call me ma’am and B, can they come with me?” Coulson’s lips twitched again as did Natasha’s. “They can’t be in the room during but they’ll be nearby, I assure you.”

“Hmm, sneaky underground secret agencies in the middle of a war-torn country. Consider me assured.” Jace smiled and walked towards the SUV in front of them. She opened the door and was about to climb in when she heard Coulson say, “I see what you mean Barton. But consider her your last stray.”

Jace smirked and settled into the leather seat.

* * *

They had pulled up to a non-descript, 8-story stone building and gotten out.

Hmm, maybe this base’s budget was cut.

She has really got to stop judging books by their covers. They walked through the double glass door, past a woman wearing to much red lipstick behind a desk to a lone elevator. Funnily enough it didn’t have an up-or-down button, just a black pad. Coulson pulled out a security pass and waved it over it and the doors opened.

They stepped into the elevator and Coulson stood by the buttons and punched in the numbers, 744353. Hmm, the 7th floor then the 4th then the 3rd, 5th and 3rd again. It hit her as the elevator plummeted down.

This reminded her of the first time, she visited the Ministry of Magic during her fifth year. It felt like they had been falling forever when the elevator stopped and the doors opened.

Huh, sneaky underground spy agency was really underground. Go figure.

Several agents were milling about as the four of them stepped out. The walls were concrete with the exception being the one to their left. It was ten feet tall and smooth granite with bronze plaques organized into neat rows. Each bearing a name. Above the plaques it read: _In the Line of Duty._

Even a sneaky underground spy agency would have to respect the fallen.

Two hallways lead off to the left and right of the elevators and straight in front of them was a wall of ribbed glass windows and frosted glass and steel doors. They stepped toward the glass wall while the other agents flashed quick looks toward them.

Eyes widen, heads shook slightly but no one laughed. Clint, Natasha and Coulson, together, were all too frightening to be laughed at. But Jace could imagine the gossip that would spread later.

She quickly tore off her bald cap and the net that held her hair to her head and slipped it into her jacket’s inner pocket. She ran her fingers through her hair to try and tame the loose curls. Coulson scanned the badge again on another black pad and the door popped open with a cool hiss and they stepped through.

The next room was several desks and glass half-walls on the main floor and a small set of steel steps leading up to a platform lining the room in an L-shape, with more frosted windows and wooden doors that lead to higher-ups offices. Then of the right side of the L-platform was a full set of glass walls revealing a conference table and plasma screens on one of the inner room walls.

Coulson turned to Clint and Natasha, “You two go get cleaned up and in uniform. I’ll take our guest here and debrief her.” Clint and Natasha nodded and headed off to a door past the cubicles and ducked through it.

Coulson turned to her, “Follow me please.” He led Jace up the stairs to conference room and opened the door for her. She slid into one of the office chairs flocking the table and Coulson said, “I’ll be back in a moment I have to retrieve the mission report and a few other things. Okay?” Jace nodded and he slipped out the door again.

It was five minutes later when Coulson appeared again with a small stack of file folders under his arm. Just as he was about to open the door, an agent stopped him and spoke to him quickly.

The conference walls must be sound-proof, huh.

Coulson’s brow furrowed and he nodded to the agent, who left as quickly as he came. Coulson looked at her and lifted one finger to gesture he needed another few minutes. Jace nodded and he left. Jace sat back in her chair and slowly swung back and forth, waiting for him to come back.

* * *

Agent Rigby had inform him Agent Hill needed to see him immediately, that it was urgent. Coulson was confused for just moment and then confirmed that he’d see her in just a moment.

He looked back at the young woman sitting in the conference room. She looked nervous, anxious and few other things that he could define. When he first saw her, it was like meeting Romanoff all over again, excepting the disguise. Now that her black waves had been freed, she looked slightly more human and a whole lot younger.

How old was she? 17? 18? Too young to be mixed up in this business. It really was Romanoff all over again, with Barton’s snark in the mix. It would be truly terrifying if those two ever had a child together.

It was almost like they had already adopted her. Barton looked at her with fond eyes as did Romanoff.

As confirmed, truly frightening.

He signed to her that he’d need a few extra minutes and she nodded patiently. He spun on his heel and went to Agent Hill’s office. When he arrived, he was met with Agents Hill, Barton and Romanoff. Hill was behind her desk, Barton was lounging in one of the chairs in front of the desk and Romanoff was perched behind him. “Agent Hill. Did something happen? I was about to debrief Ms. Black.”

Hill sighed, “That’s what this meeting concerns. Ms. Black.” Barton and Romanoff both shot looks towards Hill and Phil walked over to the other chair and stood behind it. “What do you mean?”

Hill sighed again, “What do you know about the British Ministry of Magic?” Barton had a look of confusion and curiosity written over his face, as did Romanoff but more composed.

“They are a private organization that caters specifically to wizards and magical creature, such as elves and vampires. Specialists of the occult world. Notoriously known for keeping secrets and refuse to accept the fact they are a type of hybrid and instead believe themselves to be descendants of aliens, like Merlin and Morgana. What does the wizarding world have to do with Ms. Black?”

Barton spoke out, “Sorry, but wizards are not magical but instead a hybrid of ancient aliens and humans. Did I hear that right? Do I need to fix my hearing aid again?” He began to mess with his left ear and Romanoff smack his head and whispered lowly in Russian, “Jesus, Nat, chill.”

Romanoff narrowed her eyes and gestured for Hill to continue. “Anyway, little over a week ago the Ministry of Magic lost a high-security prisoner –”

“How do you ‘lose’ a high-security prisoner?” asked Coulson.

Hill shook her head, “I’m not sure. The Ministry hasn’t exactly been forthcoming with that information. All we know is that it the prisoner escaped from a high-security cell. That same day, the prisoner had received a visitor. In the span of twenty minutes, the visitor had come and gone and the prisoner had disappeared. Vanished into thin air. No trail, except one.” She opened a file on her desk, “The visitor, Luna Lovegood-Longbottom.”

Clint snickered, “That’s a mouthful.” The file showed a picture of a woman in her late twenties - early thirties. She had a dazed expression and silvery-blond hair. Coulson picked up the file and looked through the reports, “Have they picked her up yet?”

Hill sighed, “No, she was one of the two victims in the terror attack at King’s Cross Station in London. Her husband, Neville Longbottom was the other. The reports from the Ministry are vague and completely unhelpful in finding their fugitive. I can’t tell if the Longbottoms' were resisting arrest, were murdered or even if they committed suicide to keep the fugitive’s location a secret…” She left her sentence hanging.

Coulson answered again, “You can’t tell what’s really going on.” Phil pinched the bridge of his nose, “The Ministry’s never been one for consistency. Their past records are…”

“Wayward? Erratic?”

“Capricious. Wizards are very fickle creatures. Loyalty is not something they honor. They prefer to be on the winning side.”

Hill hummed in agreement and Barton spoke again, “What I don’t understand is what this has to do with Jace. Can someone explain?” Three sets of eyes turned to Hill. Hill opened a drawer in her desk and pulled out another file, “We received this about four days ago from the Ministry since their fugitive disappeared. It’s an APB for one Jacinta Dorea Potter, their fugitive apparently.”

Natasha took the file and read it, “What’s she in high security for?”

“Terrorism, anarchism, arson, destruction of private property,” Hill grimaced as Natasha cut in, “War crimes?! Crimes against humanity?!” Clint took the file from her to see for himself, “And she’s what? Seventeen? How is a seventeen-year-old girl convicted of war crimes? Speaking of conviction, where are the trial transcripts? Her arrest report? Hill, I don’t trust these people. Again, what does this have to do with Jace?”

Hill sighed and her eyes flickered to Coulson, who was just as curious as Barton and Romanoff, “We also received a photo with the file. It’s on most governments and agencies watch-lists.” She turned her computer monitor to face them. She hit a few keys on her keyboard and up popped an image of a teenage girl with auburn hair and hazel-green eyes. Her nose was bleeding slightly, her long hair was in knots and she had a few cuts and scrapes on her face. The worse thing was that her eyes looked dead and lifeless. The image looked to be from a newspaper article.

“That’s the last image taken of Jacinta Potter, she was fifteen when she infiltrated the Ministry, fought some terrorists trying to steal something valuable. One casualty, Sirius Black, Potter’s criminal-proved-innocent godfather.” The three agents stared closely at the image. It couldn’t be…

“I notified by Agent Saunders, but our cameras caught picked up an image. I warn you now; you might not like what you see.” She typed a few keys and it was a live image and Jace’s face popped up on the monitor. She was still patiently waiting in the conference. Barton inhaled sharply.

Hill typed again and facial-recognition software appeared and marked out the similarities between Potter and Jace.

It flashed green and read: **_89% Positive Match_.**

Romanoff cursed in Russian and Barton muttered, “Fuck.”

Hill spoke again, “She changed her hair and eye color, but I bet she didn’t want to attempt facial reconstruction on the run. So the spaces between her eyes, mouth, nose, and jaw stay the same. You can’t change bone structure.”

Coulson eyes narrowed, “The file said she was seventeen. Ms. Black only appears to be a year or two older than the image.” He shook his head, “Either Black is mindless and the next Hitler or the Ministry’s lying again. I’m leaning towards the latter.”

Romanoff nodded her head, “Jace isn’t an idiot, albeit a stupid move to visit an agency who monitors the phenomenal but my guess she’s not only running, she’s hiding.” Barton agreed, “She flinches whenever someone touches her. She’s just a kid, a Natasha-like kid, but a kid all the same. She’s not responsible for war crimes; she’s a victim of them.”

Coulson and Hill nodded their head, and Coulson said, “You sanctioning this?” Hill rubbed her fingers against her lips, “I’ll take it to the Director. The Ministry has been crossing lines for a long time now. The girl’s not responsible for this, the Ministry has used scapegoats before, their more for satisfying the public than caring about the people’s lives they’ve ruined.”

Barton spoke, “We need to get her safe. They’ll want her back.” Coulson hummed, “The British Ministry hasn’t been too liked in the rest of the wizarding world, due to the fact that they’ve produced dark wizards in the past. We can get her sanctuary with the US Ministry, turn the tables on the British. They don’t work with us anyway; their loyalty is not a loss. Like I said, they’re not ones for loyalty.”

“How do we tell her?” asked Romanoff.

“Gently. She’s trusted you two this far. I’ll break it to her with you two there. Hopefully we don’t spook her and she doesn’t do something drastic.

* * *

Whenever a conversation starts, “Now we just need you to stay calm.” You know it’s never going to go well. So why should when Coulson told Jace this, be any different.

“Crap,” she whispered. She got up from her seat and steadily moved to toward the back of the room. Coulson and Clint came closer while Natasha and woman with brown hair wrapped in a neat bun whispered to each other. The woman with brown hair put her head out the door and told something to a blond agent and he walked away.

“Jace we just want to talk to you.” said Clint, “There’s nothing to worry about.” Cue panic.

She shook her head fervently, “No. you know who I am, don’t you? Don’t you?!” It was becoming difficult to reign in the panic. Her core was spiking. If she didn’t calm down, her magic would explode.

Coulson stopped and held up a hand to stop Clint, “Ms. Black we just want to talk. Do you understand that? Nobody’s arresting anyone. Okay, now just sit down and we can talk this over, do you got that?”

“Mphmm,” Jace mumbled, “No, I bet you’ve already contacted the Ministry. When are they getting here? Or have they already gotten here? Bet they have. I can’t even escape properly. Just like me, trusting the wrong people, _yet again_!” out of the corner of her eye, she saw through the window about half a dozen agents standing out there and the brown haired woman talking to them and the agents flashing looks at Jace.

“No,” she whispered, tears rushing to her eyes, “You’re not sending me back. I won’t go back! I won’t.”

Coulson tried to say, “No one’s sending you –”

“NO!” she exploded, “I won’t go back! Never again!” She was crying now and her magic was peaking, she was going to explode, “You can’t lock me up again! I won’t go back in that _cage_! I can’t go back. Don’t send me back! I WON’T GO BACK!”

Natasha murmured into an earpiece, “We have situa –” Then the glass walls exploded. Clint, Coulson, Natasha and the other agents curled in on themselves to avoid being hit by the glass. But the glass never came, because someone shouted,

“NO!”

After a few seconds, the SHIELD agents looked up and were met with (not the strangest thing they had come across in SHIELD, but still in the top ten) a strange sight.

The glass from the windows had exploded and now was small shards, but they weren’t on the floor. No, they were suspended above the ground and floating, like some extraordinary and deadly chandelier. Their eyes went to Jace, who had her arms out in front of her, holding back the glass. Tears were running down her face.

What was even stranger was that her usual emerald green eyes were pure glowing gold. **(A/N: picture Merlin from _BBC Merlin_ when he uses his magic)**

Then a booming voice came from behind the agents, “What the Hell is going here?” The agents jumped and turned to face a tall, black man with a bald head and an eye-patch. He was dressed all in leather and had a frown on his face. He looked at Jace, “What the Hell do you think you’re doing?”

Jace did something out of character, she squeaked. Her concentration lost, the glass shards quivered and fell to the ground; their momentum stopped by Jace earlier. The shards broke in smaller pieces on impact with the floor. The man’s eyes narrowed at the broken glass, “Well somebody’s going to have to clean this up.”

Coulson got his cool back first, “Director Fury sir. We didn’t realize you’d be here today.” Fury turned to Coulson, “I didn’t expect _you_ to, Coulson. You’ve been stuck handling Stark. Nice try, by the way, that certainly didn’t go the way you planned.”

Coulson gave tight nod, “They never do sir.”

“Mhmm,” Fury looked at the glass again, then back to Jace, “I assume since you broke it, you can fix it?” Jace blanched, mouth agape, “I-I-ehh.” She tried to make her mouth work, but it didn’t seem to want to form words, so she nodded instead. She turned to the glass and lifted her palm above it, “Reparo” she murmured.

The glass once ago flew up and began to reknit itself into the wall frame. Two blinks later, the glass wall was back in place and gleaming, Fury nodded, “Interesting, most wizards need wands to do that.”

“Um – well – uh – I – I’m not most wizards.” Jace finally managed to get out. Fury nodded again and stepped inside the conference room fully, “You’re not going to do that again, are you?” She shook her head and ducked her face. It was like being told off by Professor McGonagall again.

“Good, take a seat Ms. Black. We just want to talk you’re not in any danger or trouble.” He took a seat at the end of the table and she took on in the middle. Coulson took the seat to the left of Fury and the brown hair woman on the right. Natasha sat directly across from Jace and Clint right beside the redhead.

“Now that that’s out of the way. Would you like to tell us why you were imprisoned, Ms. Black?”

Jace sighed, “You just saw it. When the Ministry gets scared, they get stupid. I guess I need to start at the beginning.” Fury nodded and she continued, “I’ll try to keep it simple. It started with a dark wizard named Voldemort. He was powerful but his most powerful weapon was fear. He controlled people by using fear. Eventually he rose to full power and took over the Ministry, I spent a year in hiding because of it.”

“In the beginning of May, I went to my old school because there was something hidden it, something we could use to defeat him. But nothing could ever be that simple, in the end I had do die to finish him off. But something happened and is far too complex to explain but I came back to life and was able to defeat once and for all.”

Jace sighed, this part hurt, “It was supposed to be over. But for the past few years my friends and family had seen how powerful I was becoming. I couldn’t help it, and I couldn’t do anything about it. They were angry, I wasn’t supposed to survive. There’s something about money and all that too but mostly it was because I had too much power, too much to stay alive.”

“They put me on trial for war crimes. For the deaths that occurred did the final battle. It was a farce trial. Just meant to satisfy the public. In the end, I was cursed and tossed into a cage. Whipped, beaten, tortured for ten years –”

Clint interrupted, “Ten?! You were, what, seven when this happened?!”

Jace shook her head sadly, “No. I mentioned I was cursed.” She tore off her lace gloves and flipped her wrists. “They found ancient Celtic runes. They wanted to torment me for all eternity. They carved these into my flesh. The runes kept me alive and kept me young. When my friend Luna freed me she slashed them to cut off their power and I was free. She, Neville and a few others never betrayed me. But they had to bide their time to get me out. And that cost Luna and Neville their lives.”

Jace sat back in the chair and lowered her eyelids, “And that’s it. I still stand by it: when the Ministry gets scared, they get stupid.”

Clint growled, “Sounds like hell of a lot more than just stupidity. Who does that? To a kid?” Natasha hummed, “Like Coulson said, the Ministry’s not known for their loyalty.” Jace guffawed at that, “Huh, Helga Hufflepuff would be turning in her grave if she ever heard that.” She was met with curious looks and she waved them off.

Director Fury leaned forward and put his elbows on the table, then he turned to the brown-haired woman, “Hill, you sent word to the US Ministry yet?” The woman, Hill, nodded and said, “Sent it just before – things went a little south.” Fury hummed, “Good, get her asylum. And cut off all contact with the British Ministry, they want to be an island. I will give them a goddamn island.”

Then he turned to Coulson, “What do you think?” Coulson tilted his head slightly, “Trust issues, but we can fix that. Little young and volatile. Good attitude, seems flexible. Training with Barton and Romanoff, I’ll take her on myself. She’s viable, make a formidable asset. Green light, sir.”

Fury turned his sights on Jace, “What do you think, Black? Want to be a SHIELD agent?”

Jace raised her eyebrow, “I must say sir, I don’t exactly have the best past with sneaky underground secret agencies. Especially ones that deal with the supernatural.”

Jace’s lips quirked a bit, “Then again, Agent Jace Black does have a nice ring to it. What the hell, you only live once... Well, except if you’re me.”

“Ms. Black, welcome to SHIELD.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ugh, that took forever to finish. But it’s finally done. So, YEAH! Little bit of angst, little bit of snark. I didn’t hate it as much as I thought I would. Anyway remember my poll on my profile.
> 
> The next update might be a two-fer. One chapter being a brief interlude about Jace’s next four years at SHIELD and then onto the Avengers. Can I get a woot-woot?
> 
> Okay I am never saying that again. Anyway, review/PM and poll.
> 
> Rule27 out.


	5. Four Year Interlude

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, so this weekend will hopefully be a two-fer and I’ll post again tomorrow or Sunday. And anyways here’s chapter 5 and it’s going to be a short one.
> 
> PS: this chapter is based off the song Stand by Rascal Flatts 
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own The Avengers or Harry Potter. I’m pretty sure I am not JK Rowling or Marvel, so…

_November 12 th, 2008_

“Oomph!” Jace wheezed as she hit the mat for the umpteenth time. She had been at SHIELD’s base in New York for around two months. SHIELD had gotten her asylum with the American Ministry the first day she got here.

New life. Same life. Different sort of freedom. Meaning she would be able to go on foreign missions to everywhere except the British Isles. Not that she really wanted to go back. But right now she was with Natasha (“It’s Nat or Tasha, off duty. On duty I’m Agent Romanoff or Black Widow.”)

And she most definitely lived up to her codename. The woman seriously knew her stuff. Tasha had been training her for the past two weeks. That was because the result of her physical.

Ten years of being beaten, whipped, drowned and starved did serious things to a human body. One of SHIELD’s physicians actually went and yelled at Director Fury with all the problems with Jace’s chart.

Even as a child, Jace had never been to a doctor. The Dursleys had refused to vaccinate her or even to get her checkups. Her guess her magic was the reason she was mostly alive. That and being smart enough to stay out of bad weather or avoid getting sick.

But back to her chart, Jace was slowly healing from the aftermath of her prison sentence. She was more than half the weight she should be as someone of her height (5’8”). “Nothing but skin and bones,” Dr. McCoy had said. Several previously healed bones; skull (Petunia and her frying pan, also Bludgers), arms (Lockhart in 2nd year, and Umbridge in 5th), legs (Dudley liked to kick her everywhere), back (Vernon and his belt, also Goyle when he whacked her spine with a Bludger in 5th year).

Then came the part with her innumerable scar count. The doctor said there was nothing they could really do, she was like a soccer ball that had been put through a shredder and then tossed around some more. Jace instantly liked her. She liked a simple, honest truth. She wasn’t one for pity.

After being given a month and so to recover, she was in full health and Coulson signed off for her to train with Natasha.

Not her wisest decision.

Natasha was considerate of her previous of her past experiences but she wasn’t going easy on Jace. She knew when to stop and when to push. With that, Jace was catching up quick. At Hogwarts, they had generally used their magic to fight. But when she was nine, Jace had found a free sports clinic. She had signed up for two summer classes in karate and gymnastics.

She was no Natasha, but she could hold her own.

Gymnastics had helped keep her flexible and agile and karate taught her how to defend herself. Even after she found out she did have magic, she kept with the program. It was never a bad idea to acquire new skills.

Natasha was teaching a combination of karate, judo, taekwondo, and jujitsu. Combining agility, strength training, endurance and hand-to-hand combat. Occasionally, Tasha would have them use Clint as a dummy for their training.

Clint wasn’t too thrilled by this idea.

Not only was she fighting with Natasha but Coulson was training her as well. In the art of paperwork and research. Being a spy/agent/specialist, involved lots and lots of paperwork. When she couldn’t train with Nat in the beginning, Coulson started teaching her agency protocols, mission protocols, other organization’s protocols. Basically a lot of protocols.

Something most people didn’t know about Jace had an eidetic memory, or more commonly called a photographic memory. She could recall anything at all. Most of the time she wished she didn’t have it, but now it was really coming in handy.

She had stayed in the hospital for most of her first weeks at SHIELD and Coulson, Clint and Nat had brought her books from the SHIELD library and closed mission files.

Clint loved to watch Coulson quiz her on them and her to never miss a question. Her favorite time was when some lackey question her presence and treatment at SHIELD, then Natasha asked her to name all the streets in New York City and watching the lackey drop his jaw when she gave them all and the connecting streets. Clint just laughed and laughed.

No one ever questioned Jace’s presence at SHIELD again. Well, not to her face. She was training with Natasha after all.

* * *

_March 21 st, 2009_

Jace was snoring.

And Clint, Tasha, and Coulson were staring at her, concerned.

Now, someone snoring was usually not cause for concern. Usually you’d wake them up or take a funny picture or something. But with Jace it was a completely different matter.

Jace’s snore sounded like a cross between a dying pig, the motor of a speedboat and a jackhammer.

Not normal.

Clint whispered to the other two, “What do we do?” Natasha just shook her head, nonplussed. Coulson opened and closed his mouth a few times before thinning his lips and wrinkling his face up.

Clint exhaled, “Yeah…” The position Jace was in couldn’t be comfortable. She had fallen asleep at her desk, her head lying on her keyboard, making random things pop-up on the desktop. Her mouth wide open with a bit of drool on her lip and snoring through judgment day.

Clint grimaced and shook her shoulder, “Jace… Jaaaaaaaaccccce… wakey wakey.”

Jace had been training with Natasha for five months. Clint’s idea, not good.

Clint squawked as Jace shot up, brought her leg around his waist, twisted and flipped him facedown onto the desk. Natasha and Coulson’s eyebrows shot up and Jace’s hazy eyes cleared to see the scene.

“Goddammit Clint don’t do that! I specifically told you not to do that.” Jace climbed off Clint from where she had him pinned and sat back in her chair and rubbed her eyes tiredly. Clint sat up and leaned back against her desk, while he rubbed his neck, “When did you tell me that?”

“Ugh. Not now, I’m finishing up this update on the Banner situation for Coulson and I have my aptitude assessment later and I’m running on fumes.” Jace had been working on getting rid of her accent and switching to an American one, while simultaneously working for Coulson, training with Natasha and Clint, her SHIELD classes and visiting Dr. McCoy every two weeks for a check-up. Jace was getting an average of fifteen hours of sleep per week.

Jace didn’t sleep a lot anyway. Too many nightmares. Clint wanted her to see a SHIELD psychiatrist, and Jace told him she’d go if he’d go. And now they were at a stalemate.

Coulson spoke up, “Jace, I can get the update tomorrow if you need to rest –” Jace cut him off by making a “uh-uh” noise and shaking her head, “I caught a little cat nap, I’m good to work. Anyway I’m almost done, just need to print it off.” Her answer was betrayed when she yawned.

Natasha sighed, “Jace you’ve gotten – what? – three hours of sleep in the past ninety-six. Stop. You need to rest. That or I’m dragging your ass to medical and having McCoy knock you out.” Jace yawned again and shook her head, “Got too much to do.”

“It can wait a couple hours, enough for you to get some sleep.” Clint said. Jace shook her head again, “Even if I lie down and fall asleep, I’ll wake up even more tired. I can’t sleep. Not with…”

Coulson asked, “Nightmares?” Jace sighed tiredly, “I think my brain likes to work against me.” Clint brought her into his arms, “What if I stayed with you? Would that fight them off?” Jace murmured into his shoulder, “I don’t know. I just – I don’t know. And I can’t do that to you. You need your sleep and I’m likely to wake up screaming or crying or both. I can’t do that – I can’t let you see that.”

Clint breathed into her hair, “But you can’t fight them alone. We’ve been trying to teach you, you’re not alone here. And you won’t be as long as we’re here. You’re not alone Jace, not now, not ever.” Jace just sighed and nodded. Clint picked her up and took her to her room. He tucked them both in and wrapped his arms around her.

“Tomorrow, we’re taking the day off and going to visit the shrink. We both need it Jace.” Jace just nodded and snuggled deeper into his arms and fell into a dreamless sleep with the sound of his heartbeat.

* * *

_June 3 rd, 2010_

Jace was training with Clint in the boxing ring of the LA SHIELD gym. Coulson was needed in this office and Jace had used her newest weapon against Director Fury (her deadly combination of Disney Princess/Puss-in-Boots/puppy-dog eyes [Coulson agreed with Clint that they were probably more dangerous than Tony Stark’s Iron Man suit] {Natasha smirked at them, then gave her a high five}). So she found herself messing around with Clint in the vents of the SHILED Los Angeles field office.

It was a lot of fun.

Clint had just dodged her right hook, when Coulson walked in and yelled, “Black! Barton! Need a word.” Clint was distracted for half a second, when Jace gave a combo-jump/spinning kick that put him on his ass. Jace landed on the balls of her feet and turned to Coulson.

“Sup Phil.” Jace had been working hard during the past year to get rid of her accent. There was still a hint of it when she normally talked and it only really came out when she yelled. SHIELD learned pretty quickly not to piss off Jace Black. It just might be last thing you ever do.

They still don’t know what happened to Agent Desman. He had made it pretty clear he was interested in pursuing the witch/agent and after an attempted groping session, he was never heard from again. Clint was pissed at the agent for even trying something with his adopted baby sister/co-best friend and at Jace, that he never got a shot at the quote-unquote, “sleazy bastard”.

Coulson just shook his head and Natasha smirked at the exchange. Director Fury asked for video of the whole thing and Hill just asked her fill out the appropriate paperwork. Before, Desman was infamous for being a creep/player at SHIELD and after, he was famous for being the last person to ever hit on Agent Jace Black.

“And Tweety,” When she had discovered Barton’s codename, she had laughed hysterically, then proceed to make up numerous bird-themed nicknames for him, “What was the first rule you taught me in fighting? Don’t let anything distract you.” She scolded Clint, smirking, and turned back to Coulson, “What’s up Phil? You usually wouldn’t just stroll in and shout at us unless it was important.”

“I just like seeing Barton getting his ass kicked. It’s good to see him taken down a peg or two.” Jace smiled as Clint squawked and got up to lean against the ring with her. “Nice to see you to, sir.”

“Anyway,” Jace said, rolling her eyes, “What do you need Phil?” She was the only one to call him “Phil” at SHIELD besides Fury, only Fury used it casually. Jace just used it because, “Life’s just too short to call someone by their last name. It’s the name you were given and dammit, it’s the name I’m going to use.”

Little known to the rest of SHIELD but Jace was memorizing everyone’s names. It was quite funny to see her saying hello to some random employee. She was even working on calling Director Fury, “Nick”. Once again it was funny to see.

“Need to pick your brain, Black.” Coulson asked.

“Sure, shoot.”

“What do you know about palladium poisoning?”

Jace’s eyes popped out a bit, “Um – well… palladium’s a slow-acting poison and would take several months to build up enough toxins to kill someone. Why? Is someone being poisoned with palladium?”

“Yeah, Tony Stark. Used it to power the arc reactor in his chest.”

“God help the poor bastard.” Both Clint and Phil’s eyebrows shot up. Jace exhaled, “Well I guess, from what I’ve read, and that’s basic chemistry, there’s no cure for it. Especially if it is helping to power the arc reactor.”

“We don’t need a cure. We just want to keep him alive long enough for him to cure himself.”

“Hmm, okay. Well there might be a temporary solution. It might keep him alive for a little while longer. Keep in mind its experimental and a professional would have to create it but a solution of lithium dioxide will slow down the poisoning and at least extend his timeline a little while longer, if he keeps up the injections. But after… say… three weeks his body will stop accepting it and poison will kill him. It’s not a cure, just treating the symptoms.”

Coulson nodded, and Jace added, “Talk to Mitchell in radiology. It was his book where I learned this in the first place. He can probably come up with something.”

Coulson nodded again, “Thanks Jace.”

“No problem. And where’s Natasha. She’s been missing for a while and is refusing to go bar hopping with me.” Coulson turned with a raised eyebrow, “First, you’re barely twenty and not at the legal drinking age yet and second, Romanoff’s been shadowing Stark. Seeing if he’s viable for a team SHIELD’s putting together.”

“And that team would be?”

“Classified, Black. Need-to-Know only.”

Jace smirked, “You know ‘Me’ and ‘classified’ do not belong in the same sentence, Phil.” Coulson quirked his lips, “I know, Jace. I know.” With that he turned on his heel and headed for the gym doors. Then Jace turned back to Clint, “Okay, Scuttle, let’s try that again and see where you went wrong.”

Clint just grimaced.

* * *

_July 31 st, 2011_

Jace woke up on her birthday to her phone ringing. “Hmm, hello?”

_“Jace,”_ said Phil, _“Sorry to wake you up and especially today.”_ She waved him off even though he couldn’t see her, _“But what do you know about Norse Mythology?”_

Jace rubbed the grit from her eyes, “Hold on, did you say Norse mythology? Or is my hearing starting to go?”

Coulson sighed on the other end, “ _No Jace, you heard me right. But do you anything about it? You’re our ear to the ground on the supernatural and metaphysical.”_ Over her time at SHIELD Jace had made contacts in the occult societies, i.e. wizards, vampires, fairies, etc. Now all the higher ups, whenever they had paranormal problem, Fury would direct their calls to Jace to help them.

Needless to say, but working in an agency that deals with those sort of problems, Jace’s phone is always being blown up with calls.

“Um… well… my guess is that it’s very similar to the wizards. But instead of being hybrids, the Norse myths are probably aliens and ancient cultures like the Vikings mistook them for gods. I guess… that they’d be stronger than average humans, probably a size difference, and language barriers. They’d probably speak differently than us. Honestly, I don’t really know Phil. I’m not as familiar with it as Merlin or Morgana, but it’s probably the same thing, just a few variations.”

“ _Hmm, thanks Jace. I appreciate it.”_

“I’d appreciate it if you both were here.”

“ _I know Jace and I’m sorry Barton and I got pulled away. But Romanoff’s got your present and I hope you like it. I am sorry, Jace but I hope you have a happy birthday and we’ll be back East soon.”_

“I’m going to hold you to that Phil,” she said as she turned in her sheets to see a picture of the four of them in Disneyland on her last birthday and behind that was a picture of them at the Rockefeller Plaza at Christmas. “I miss you guys.”

_“We miss you too, Jace. But we’ll be back before you know it. Happy birthday, kiddo.”_ He had taken to calling her kiddo a few months back after a mission where they went undercover as father and daughter. And she never asked him to stop. Though she did tell him he was far too young to have a kid her age. He just smiled and hugged her (Phil gave the absolute best hugs).

“Love you too, Phil. Stay safe.”

_“We’ll try our best. See you when we get home. Keep the lights on, Nightingale.”_ Then he hung up and Jace slid her phone closed. When she had received her codename, Clint had shouted “HA!” and said she had to stop giving him grief with the bird names. She raised an eyebrow and said, “Why would I ever do that, Flit?” Phil began to try to come up with Florence Nightingale jokes and was surprisingly succeeding. Natasha just smirked and said she’d be calling her “Gale” because she was a force of nature to be reckoned with.

She then she snuggled back into the warmth of her sheets and waited for Nat to wake her up to celebrate her birthday.

* * *

_January 5th, 2012_

“Barton! Jace! I need you in my office!” shouted Director Fury over SHIELD’s intercom. Jace had questioned the installment of it, she had said they were a sneaky, underground, spy agency and had suggested some sort or secret flame paper messaging system instead. Nick sighed and told her they already tried it ten years ago and some very important, classified documents had been set on fire.

In the end, Jace dropped the issue.

Now she and Clint were walking to Nick’s office, “What do you think this time? Prague? Seville? Ooh! Casablanca! I have been dying to go there.”

Clint snorted, “You will be dying if we’re late to this meeting.” Jace bristled and snorted, “Ha! Nick loves me far too much to ever kill me and we both know that. And anyway, he would have killed me ages ago with all the rules I break. I’m the exception to every rule.”

“Even dying?”

Jace shared a secret smile, “Especially that one.”

Jace had gotten away with many things during her three and a half years at SHIELD. One especially being the dress code. While agents wore suits (like Coulson), cat-suits (like Natasha and Maria) or specialist uniforms (like Clint), she always had her black leather jacket she bought in Budapest; a variety of black skinny jeans or leggings and her collection of band t-shirts she discovered in a Chicago thrift shop, her other black tops (from lacey to tunics) and a few other colors; adding in her myriad of boots and high-tops.

Clint said she looked like she was trying to go Goth while keeping it hipster. Coulson said she at least kept it modest. Natasha just smirked.

Then this past Christmas, Natasha took her to the salon and left her there. And she came to the apartment the three of them share to show off her new hair, the bottom half dyed various shades of purple. **(<http://www.thezooom.com/2012/10/7353/>)**

Clint nearly cried and spun her around, whooping at the top of his lungs. Natasha said she would have liked it better to have been black and red. Coulson said she’s going have to talk to Nick about her missions, due to now she’d be a lot more noticeable. Jace pouted and said Nick loved her too much to stop her from going on missions.

Now they had arrived at Fury’s office, his secretary knocked on the door, poked her head in, said they were here and opened the door for them to go in.

“Good timing, Barton. I just got off the phone with New Mexico. I need you to fly out first thing tomorrow. I’d give you the weekend but one of the scientists is getting a little antsy with SHIELD and wants you or Coulson out there.”

“And Coulson is…” Clint started.

“Juggling so many things at once it makes my head spin.”

“And the scientist, sir?”

“One Dr. Erik Selvig. You remember him. Was there in Puente Antiguo, when all the shit with Thor and the Destroyer went down. Ring any bells.”

“Mentor to Jane Foster, Thor’s … girlfriend. I don’t know if that’s accurate, sir.”

“What the hell went down in New Mexico?!” Jace interrupted.

Fury ignored her, “Correct. Dr. Selvig is now part of Project PEGASUS at the Joint Dark Energy Mission, Western Division, and he wants someone familiar with New Mexico and Coulson’s got enough on his hands. So I want you out there instead.”

“Sir, what is Project PEGASUS?”

“The secret underground base testing the Tesseract, a foreign, more than likely, alien object discovered in the 1940s by Howard Stark in his search for Captain Rogers, its intended purpose is for SHIELD to expand into the clean energy business.” Jace said getting looks from Nick and Clint, “What? You should know by now that nothing stays classified for long when I’m around.” Clint shrugged his shoulders and Nick sighed.

Clint spoke again, “Sir, if it is Asgardian or some other alien object, wouldn’t sending in Jace be a better option? Someone who’s more familiar with phenomenon?” Jace looked curiously at Nick as well. The Director sighed.

“It would be a better option to send Jace in, but given Dr. Selvig’s demands I’m sending you. You’re more familiar with Dr. Selvig and the Puente Antiguo mission than Jace is. And I just want him happy so he can get back to work. Clear?”

Clint nodded, “Yes, sir.”

Then Fury turned to Jace, “I’m sending you out to Germany.”

“Germany?” Her brow furrowing.

“Specifically, a city called Stuttgart. We’ve got intelligence on a man named Percy Van Gress and underground dealings with occult societies. Selling everything from faulty amulets to werewolf puppies. Deep cover. Shut it down and then get your ass back here.” He said handing her a file

“Timeframe?” She asked as her examined its contents. “You get it done in less than six months. I want shut down. I got ministries filing complaints left and right. You’ll get it done faster than you think. You leave for Berlin Monday and head to Stuttgart by train. We both clear?”

“Yes, sir.” They answered simultaneously.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes that is done and now we head into the Avengers. Remind me I have to re-watch that. Please, please, please review. This chapter ended up being a lot longer than I originally intended. Kudos if you caught some of the bird names. 
> 
> Ooh, um currently for the poll it is Alexandra Daddario in 1st, with Adelaide Kane and Emilia Clarke tied for 2nd and Michelle Trachtenberg in 3rd, but keep voting I’ll close the poll sometime next week. And that’s about it so, see ya soon.
> 
> Love, Rule27NeverKnowinglyBeSerious


	6. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Helicarrier

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own The Avengers or Harry Potter. I’m pretty sure I am not JK Rowling or Marvel, so…

_As the sirens blared and the announcer came over the intercom, a lone helicopter flew onto the landing pad. A man and woman stepped from the helicopter into the brisk night New Mexican air._

_They approached a man wearing a pristine black suit and sunglasses. “How bad is it?” asked the tall black man in leather. The agent took off his sunglasses and said, “That’s the problem, sir. We don’t know.”_

* * *

_The man locked Clint’s grip as he tried to shoot him. The man wearing green and gold stared curiously at Clint. Clint got nervous when the man said, “You have heart.”_

_Before he knew it, the scepter was on his chest and Clint’s world went blue._

* * *

_As Director Fury shot off at the escaping vehicle, he heard Coulson’s voice over the radio, “Director? Director Fury, do you copy?”_

_Fury picked up his radio, “The Tesseract is with a hostile force. I have men down. Hill?”_

_Maria picked herself out of her damaged Jeep and hit her walkie-talkie, “A lot of men still under. Don’t know how many survivors.” Fury spoke again, “Sound a general call. I want every living soul not working rescue looking for that briefcase.”_

_“Roger that.” responded Hill. Fury said, “Coulson, get back to base. This is a Level Seven. As of right now, we are at war.”_

_Coulson’s voice sounded, “What do we do?”_

_Fury inhaled, and Coulson said, “Jace is not going to be happy.”_

_No, she was not._

* * *

_“You listen carefully –” said the man in Russian, talking into the cell phone._

_Coulson’s voice interrupted, **“You’re at 1-14 Silensky Plaza, 3 rd floor. We have an F-22 exactly eight miles out. Put the woman on the phone, or I will blow up the block before you can make the lobby.”**_

_With wide eyes the man tucked it under the redhead woman’s cheek, **“We need you to come in.”** said Coulson._

_“Are you kidding? I’m working.” said Natasha._

**_“This takes precedence.”_ **

_“I’m in the middle of an interrogation and this moron is giving me everything.” The man looked around dubiously, “I don’t give everything.”_

_“Look you can’t pull me out of this right now.”_

**_“Natasha. Barton’s been compromised.”_ **

_A beat later, “Let me put you on hold.”_

* * *

_“No. No. Of course not. I’m here on behalf of SHIELD.” said Natasha to the scruffy-looking man, who was fiddling with his fingers, “SHIELD.” He murmured, “How did they find me?”_

_Natasha’s thoughts turned to Jace, “_ _We never lost you, doctor. We've kept our distance, even helped keep some other interested parties off your scent.” She smirked, “You can thank Jace’s sleepless nights for that.”_

* * *

_“The world has gotten even stranger than you already know.”_

_The blond sighed, “At this point, I doubt anything would surprise me.”_

_Director Fury said calmly, “Ten bucks says you wrong.” Steve gave him a look. “You’ve obviously have never met Black before.”_

* * *

_“I gotta say, it’s an honor to meet you officially.” Steve gave a small smile to the agent. “I’ve sort of met you. I mean, I watched you while you were sleeping.” Steve’s smile turned down and he gave a tight awkward look to Coulson._

_“I mean, I was present while you were unconscious from the ice.” He could now hear Jace’s voice in his head, about how creepy he was sounding. “You know, it’s really just… a huge honor to have you on board this…”_

_Steve walked over to the pilot’s pit and stood there with Coulson, “Well, I hope I’m the man for the job.”_

_“Oh, you are. Absolutely. Uh… we made some modifications to the uniform. I had a little design input.” … and Jace’s voice was back._

_“The uniform?” asked Steve, “Aren’t the stars and stripes a little… old-fashioned?”_

_Coulson smiled sadly, “With everything that is happening, all the things that are about to come to light and from what Jace tells me, people just might need a little old-fashioned.”_

_Steve furrowed his brow, “Jace?”_

_Coulson sighed and hummed, “Black. When she gets wind of this…” he shook his head, “She’s going to make Loki wish he had never been born.”_

_Fury’s words echoed in Steve’s head, **“You’ve obviously never met Black before.”** It only proceeded to make Steve more confused._

* * *

_“Is this a submarine?” asked Steve as the ship starts to shake and the turbines power up._

_“Really? They want me in a submerged, pressurized, metal container?” said Banner._

_They moved closer to the edge to see the waves push back to reveal four massive lift fans. The blades begin to spin and lift the Helicarrier into the sky. Steve looks in awe and Banner smiles, “No, no, this is much worse.”_

_Natasha smirked, “That’s what Jace said.”_

* * *

_“We’re at level, sir.”_

_“Good. Let’s vanish.”_

* * *

_“So how long am I staying?” Banner asked Fury._

_“Once we get our hands on the Tesseract, you’re in the wind.” Banner began to move toward the rail, “Where are you with that?”_

_Coulson spoke up from the lower deck, “_ _We're sweeping every wirelessly accessible camera on the planet. Cellphones, laptops. If it's connected to a satellite, it's eyes and ears for us.”_

_“That’s still not going to find them in time.” Natasha said looking up from a picture of Clint Barton on the computer, “We’d be faster if Jace was here, Director.”_

_Banner turned to the Director, “You have to narrow your field. How many spectrometers do you have access to?” Fury glanced at him, “How many are there? And Romanoff, Black’s busy in Germany ”_

_Banner removed his jacket, “Call every lab you know, tell them to put the spectrometers on the roof and calibrate them for gamma rays. I'll rough out a tracking algorithm based on cluster recognition. At least we could rule out a few places. Do you have somewhere for me to work?”_

_Steve interrupted, “What I want to know is who this ‘Jace’ and ‘Black’ is that you keep referring to. Could she help us?”_

_Coulson and Natasha said simultaneously, “Yes.”_

_Fury narrowed his eyes at them, “Jace Black has a specific skill set, that yes could be useful to us, but I don’t want to risk Loki getting his hands on another weapon.”_

_Natasha glared at the Director, “So you’ll leave her out there, when you know Barton knows her location?”_

_“Black isn’t a kid anymore, Romanoff. She is perfectly capable of taking care herself.”_

_“She’d rather die first than hurt Barton.”_

_“Agent Romanoff, would you show Dr. Banner to his lab, please.”_

_Natasha glares at the Director again and nods stiffly, then leads Banner away, “You’re going to love it, Doc. We got all the toys.” Bruce looked dubiously at Natasha but followed her anyway._

_Steve turned to Coulson, “What was that all about?”_

_“Natasha was one of the first people to meet Jace, along with Agent Barton. I agree with Natasha, Jace needs to be brought in.”_

_“Why?”_

_“If Loki is able to turn or compromise Jace, we’ve already lost.”_

* * *

_Steve and Coulson were standing at the bridge discussing Phil’s Captain America trading cards, when…_

_“We got a hit. 67% match.” With Loki’s face on a computer monitor and map next to it. “Wait. Cross match, 79%.” Coulson walked over to the agent and computer, “Location?”_

_The agent showed him the monitor, “Stuttgart, Germany. 28 Konigstrasse.” Coulson went pale and whipped around to Director Fury, who was also a little wide eyed. The agent continued, “He’s not exactly hiding.”_

_“Jace is in deep cover, she wouldn't have gotten the general call. Sir, he’s either really bad at hiding or he’s hunting.” Fury leveled his gaze with Steve, “Captain, you’re up.”_

* * *

It had been a couple of rough months for Jace to track this “Pierce Van Green” or whatever his name was down. All the intel had suggested was that an underground trading business for supernatural items was in “Studguard”, Germany and this was man behind it.

She had seduced her way through low-level lackeys and insubordinates to find out his favorite bar in town.

Five months. Jace was not exactly thrilled.

A month ago she had finally discovered the identity of the bar and used every seduction technic she had to end up in the lap of “Pierre Von Greenwich”.

The plan was to get his phone, hack into his bank accounts, freeze his assets and have some other agents to shut down the distribution site and presto mission accomplished.

In order to get his phone, she had to get in his pants. Literally and figuratively.

Currently she was being held against the wall as “Perry Venn Grabby” felt her up and attacked her neck. Nobody ever said SHIELD jobs were glamorous. Luckily she had ways of getting around these sorts of situations. One more lick and…

“What kind of perfume is that?” He was already as drunk as hell and she may have slipped him something extra.

She smirked at him, “Just rosewater, lilies, a drop of vanilla and a tiny bit of chloroform. Sweet dreams.”

“Huh?... Ugh guh.” He managed to get out before collapsing against her chest. The man was already two inches than her minus her heels, “Ugh.” She huffed in disgust. Jace flipped him around and wrapped her arms under his and proceeded to drag him down the hall.

She inserted his room key and kicked her leg back to open the door. She got into the room and tossed him on the bed. Then she began to strip her victim. The chloroform, plus the earlier alcohol, wouldn’t allow him to remember much about this night. She’d leave him naked on the bed and let him delude himself with his own fantasies.

She doubted he’d even remember the fake name she gave him (Josie Barstole). In the middle of removing his pants, after she’d gotten rid of his jacket and shirt, her phone rang out.

Not something that usually happened in the middle of a mission.

She pulled it out from under her leather miniskirt, where she her holster for her gun and hit the answer button. “Mistress Jacinta’s Den of Iniquity, your pleasure is our business.”

An exasperated voice came over the line, _“Dear God, never say that again.”_

Jace chuckled darkly, “Sorry Phil, couldn’t help myself. Anyway, you’re lucky the John is unconscious right now, but Phil I’m in deep cover. You are not supposed to be calling me right now.”

_“Jace, something’s happened.”_

At his serious tone Jace immediately tuned in, “What’s up?”

_“One of our bases was attacked by a man called Loki –”_

“Wait, Loki from Norse mythology? Loki as in the brother of Thor who touched down in New Mexico last year, Loki? That one?”

_“Unfortunately.”_

“What base did he attack? And why’d he attack it?”

_“He was after something we had been testing and successfully stole it.”_

“What’s this got to do with me?”

Coulson inhaled, _“He’s less than a mile from your current location. He’s at 28 Konigstrasse. Jace we don’t know what he’s after exactly. It might be a ploy to drag you out into the open.”_

“How would he know about me?”

_“Loki compromised some of our men with some type of magic. It’s possible he’s after you or something else.”_

“Why though –”

_“Jace, I don’t have a lot of time to explain things. Just observe him and wait for extraction, Romanoff will be there soon.”_

“Phil –”

 _“I gotta go, sweetie. I’ll see you soon. Put your comm in.”_ A click and he hung up. Jace sighed frustrated and looked back at “Peter”. She reached in his pants pocket to remove his phone and left the room.

She tugged on her leather jacket to fix it over her vintage gold lace top. Then she had on a leather miniskirt with some fishnet tights underneath and a pair of high-heeled black boots. Just your typical undercover spy/man-eater.

Good choice for meeting the Norse god of Mischief. Ugh, Fred and George would have…

Jace stopped suddenly before the door. _Just forget about_ , she chided herself and kept walking. She turned up the main avenue and then heard the screams. “Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap,” she echoed as she began to run towards the panic.

She ran in the opposite direction of the incoming crowd as they screamed in terror. She pushed past several people until she was concealed in the shrubbery of the main square. Then she saw him. In fact it was impossible not to, unless if you were blind. The man was dressed in green and black leather with gold/bronze plated armor. And a ridiculous-looking helmet. _He’s definitely compensating for something with that thing on his head._

Surprisingly he was quite handsome for a villain. And then he opened his mouth.

“Kneel before me,” his commanding voice boomed into the square. So he was one of those types. Jace sighed and rolled her eyes as several more of him popped up into the square. The people drew back in fright of the illusions. Jace sighed again. She really needed to educate people the difference between the real thing and illusions.

He shouted again, “I said. KNEEL!” Ugh, really?

The crowd of people dropped in fright. Jace hoped that one of them wouldn’t decide to be brave and stand up to the mad man. Looking at Loki, Jace could tell he was slightly unhinged. Just pacify him until backup arrives.

Jace scoffed lightly as the man held out his arms and waved his glowy staff over the people. She rolled her eyes, yet again, as he started his classic Disney Villain monologue, “Is not this simpler? Is this not your natural state? It's the unspoken truth of humanity, that you crave subjugation. The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life's joy in a mad scramble for power, for identity. You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel.”

Obviously, this guy knew nothing of Earth history. Yep, he was totally going to lose.

Then the old guy stood up and Jace cursed quietly, “Not to men like you.”

“There are no men like me.” _Oh really. Maybe not men, not anymore. But there’s still one gal who’s going to kick your –_

“There are always men like you.” Great, now he’s bashing Hitler. Sir, just sit down and do not incur the wrath of the current Disney mastermind.

Loki smiled and raised his staff, “Look to your elder, people. Let him be an example.” _Ohhhhh, no you don’t bitch_

Then Jace saw a red, white and blue blur. Next thing she knew Loki was crouched on the ground and Captain America sauntering up to him ( _Damn, what an ass)_ , “You know, the last time I was in Germany and saw a man standing above everybody else, we ended up disagreeing.” _Seriously what is with the WWII references?_

Loki slowly got up, smirking, “The soldier. A man out of time.” _Wanna meet a woman?_

“I’m not the one who’s out of time.” _Could you get any punnier? Is that a word? Punnier?_ Then a roar of engines sounded over the square. And everyone’s favorite Russian’s voice came over the sound system and also a really big cannon, “Loki, drop the weapon and stand down.”

Then chaos erupted. Loki fired his staff/spear thing at Natasha, who dodged it. Then Captain America threw his shield at Loki, who didn’t dodge it. Then the Captain proceeded to punch Loki’s lights out. All the while the crowd fled the fight scene.

Jace slowly crept from the bushes to the stone fence nearing the stairs of the square. She watched as Loki and Captain fought, shield and fist vs. spear/staff. Punches were thrown and Captain was flung back. He crouched up and threw his shield at Loki, who deflected it. then the Captain charged him and they began to fight fist vs. spear.

Jace had no idea the Captain was that flexible, the way he dodged the spear’s attack. She tried to see an opening then found it.

Loki knocked the Captain back and put the butt of his spear to his helmet, “Kneel.”

Jace sighed loudly, “Really?”

Loki and the Captain froze at the new voice. Loki turned his eyes a fraction towards her and the Captain used it to his advantage. He pushed the spear away and then caught Loki in spin-kick to the face. Unfortunately the Captain messed up on his next move and Loki tossed him away like a rag doll.

Then AC-DC’s “Shoot to Thrill” began to sound over the Quinjet’s PA system. The Captain’s and Loki’s gaze turned to the sky and a streak of red and gold illuminated the sky.

Jace wasn’t one to miss a distraction. With unbelievable speed and agility (Apparation and training with Tasha), she launched herself at Loki. She kicked the butt of the spear up with her shoe and whispered, “Accio” under her breath. The spear flung out of his hand into her grasp.

Loki didn’t realize what happened until Jace bashed the butt of the spear into his helmet, brought her left leg around his knees and face-planted him into the stone courtyard. She placed her knee into the small of his back and the spear’s point at the base of his neck.

“Move and I snap your neck.” She said in a deadly voice.

Then a warbled voice said, “Wrong move, Reindeer Games.” Jace glanced up to see the stoic face of Iron Man and the flushed and confused one of Captain America.

“Mr. Stark.” greeted the Captain.

“Captain.”

Jace reached into the inner lining of her jacket to pull out a pair of magically reinforced handcuffs, “Power down, Loki. Or I get to play piñata with your spear and you as the piñata.”

“I’d do what she says Reindeer.” said Stark.

She pulled off of Loki’s back and flipped him over. He vanished his helmet and gold armor, then she slapped the cuffs on his wrists. Loki’s bluish-green eyes widened slightly as he felt the effects of the cuffs. Jace smiled warmly, “Sorry left my fluffy handcuffs at home.”

She stood up fully and readjusted her skirt, “Boys haul him away.” She snapped her legs together, put the spear over one shoulder and strolled off to the landing Quinjet. Then the Captain shouted, “We didn’t get your name!”

She smirked as she looked over her shoulder at the two costumed heroes, “Agent Jace Black, codename: Nightingale.”

* * *

The staring match between Jace and Loki would probably go down in the history books. Captain looked sort of concerned and Stark was smiling with glee. The great god of Mischief Loki, could takedown Captain America but was defeated by a teenager.

Jace just folded her hands over her crossed legs and smiled serenely at Loki.

If looks could kill.

“She’s twenty, Stark, now leave her alone and stop antagonizing the prisoner. I got Fury on the line.” Natasha said. Jace called up to the cockpit, “Say hello to Nick for me, Nat.”

Natasha smirked and began to speak with the Director.

Jace turned her gaze back to Loki, who was no longer glaring but curiously frowning. Jace didn’t like that analyzing look one bit. She sat back in her seat and continued the staring chess match. Then she overheard Stark and the Captain, “I don’t like.”

She snorted at Stark’s response, “What, Rock of Ages giving up so easily?” The Captain sighed, “I don’t remember it being that easy.” Jace smirked, “You’re right. It’s not supposed to be that easy.”

The Captain’s blue gaze turned to her, “And you would know?” Jace sighed sadly, “You’re not the only one who’s been in a war, Captain.” His eyes narrowed as she gave him a half-lidded look, “He packs a wallop, is what I’m saying.”

“Well still, you are pretty spry for an older fellow. What’s you thing? Pilates?”

“What?”

“It’s like calisthenics. You might of missed a couple of things, you know, doing time as a Capsicle.” The Captain opened his mouth to retort but Jace intervened, “Boys…” she said warningly, “Would you like to join Loki in time-out? If you don’t then learn to play nicely.”

Natasha snorted lightly and the three men looked at her. Captain Rogers turned to Stark, “Fury didn’t tell me he was calling you in. He talked about possibly adding Agent Black, but not you.”

“There’s a lot of things Fury doesn’t tell you.” Stark told him, but Jace turned her gaze to the back of Nat’s head. “Tasha, why was I only a possibility?”

The silence that followed was awkward, “It’ll be explained when we get back to the Helicarrier. If it’s any consolation Jace, you were right.”

“Right? Right about what? There’s a butt-load of things I am right about?” But Natasha ignored her and a crack of thunder rumbled around the Quinjet. “Where’s this coming from?” Natasha said peering at the flashing lightning.

Jace’s eyes flew to Loki’s face as more thunder and lightning crashed. Apparently, so did Rogers, “What’s the matter? Scared of a little lightning?” Loki’s comment shook something loose in Jace’s mind, “I’m not overly fond of what follows.”

_What follows lightn –? Crap._

“Tasha!” Jace shouted, leaping from her seat. “What?!” Jace swallowed and turned to Loki, “I think we’re about to have some unexpected company.” Then a thunk-noise sounded from the right wing of the Quinjet. More lightning and thunder crashed and the plane began to rock, throwing all standing off balance.

“Oomph!” Jace said as she tumbled to the floor, Captain Rogers helped her back up onto her ludicrous boots and Stark threw on his Iron Man helmet. Stark walked over to the control panel and hit the rear hatch opening. The Captain grabbed his own helmet and put it on and Jace stood cautiously in front of Loki.

The Captain shouted, “What are you doing?” at Stark. Then the shit hit the fan.

A man with long blond hair wearing a red cape and navy armaments, flew into the Quinjet. He landed on the hatch with a thud and walked up to Stark. Stark tried to fire his repulsor but the man hit him with a giant hammer and Stark flew back into the Captain.

The giant man went for Jace next and she froze. All the spells flew out of her brain as the massive man pushed her to the side. And when she said pushed, she meant his strengths made her fly into the Quinjet’s seats and rattle her teeth.

The man hit Loki’s cuffs with the hammer and smashed them to pieces. The man grabbed Loki’s neck and flew with him, out of the Quinjet, and into the night.

Natasha shouted at her, “ _Gejl,_ you okay?” Jace winced a bit but muttered back an “Mmhmm” Stark stood up with a slight groan, “And now there’s that guy.”

Natasha spoke up again, “Another Asgardian?” The Captain got up next, “That guy’s a friendly?” Jace winced as she cradled her ribs and nodded, “Thor. Loki’s brother. Blew up a small New Mexican town last year. Though it was mostly Loki’s fault.” They all gave her looks, “What? I read mission reports?”

Captain Rogers helped her up again, “You okay?” She nodded stiffly, “Been hit worse.”

“No man should ever hit a woman.”

“Well I did put cuffs on his brother, so.”

Stark interrupted, “That doesn’t matter right now. If he frees Loki or kills him, the Tesseract’s lost.” Jace told him, “He won’t kill him and anyway there are other ways to find the Tesseract.”

“We can’t risk it.”

The Captain spoke next, “Stark, we need a plan of attack!” Stark looked back at them for a second from the rear hatch, “I have a plan. Attack.” Then flew off after Thor and Loki.

“Famous last words.” Jace muttered. The Captain sighed and went to grab a parachute, “What are you doing?” Jace shouted at him over the wind. Natasha commented too, “I’d sit this one out, Cap.”

“I can’t see how I can.” He said strapping down the parachute. Natasha spoke, “These guys come from legend. They’re basically gods.”

“There’s only one God, ma’am. And I’m pretty sure he doesn’t dress like that.” He mounted his shield on his arm and Jace followed him to the hatch, “You can’t go out there, especially dressed like that.” He grimaced at the sight of her mostly bare legs.

Jace smirked, “You’d be surprised by what I can do Captain.”

He shared her smile, “That’s what Fury said.” And threw himself out of the Quinjet. Jace rolled her eyes and sighed. She wobbled back into the Quinjet and sat in her seat. She began to remove the four-inch stiletto heels she had picked out to wear that day.

She wiggled her multi-colored toes in relief when she finally peeled off the boots. She smiled sneakily at Natasha and then to the rear hatch. “Hey, Nat! you ever heard the saying, _never send a man to do a woman’s job_?”

“Jace don’t you even think about it.” Jace raced from her chair and vaulted her body out of the plane and into the brisk night air. “JACE!!!!”

* * *

Unbeknownst to her family and friends at SHIELD, Jace had secretly spent the last six months learning to become an Animagus. She was going to show off her new form by delivering Clint’s birthday present next month. Becoming an Animagus was one part physical, three parts mental. She has spent several hours, even days meditating to figure out her form.

Coincidently it was also her codename. Serendipitous if you ask her.

Her Animagus had a lovely light cocoa brown feathers and a slight dusting of lilac under her beak. She was bit bigger than the average female Nightingale but small enough to not make a fuss with birdwatchers. She couldn’t wait for her next infiltration mission. They’d be done in ten minutes.

She was zooming through the night sky, flying above a forest much like the one back at Hogwarts. Then she heard the tell-tale sounds of a fight and zipped through the trees into a small clearing. Where she saw Iron Man and Thor.

So, Iron Man and Thor walk into a forest…

There were a few trees broken here and there and it started make her teeth it. Not that she had teeth in this form. Then Thor said, “Do not touch me again.”

Stark lifted up him faceplate, “Then don’t take my stuff.” Speaking of stuff, where is Loki? “You have no idea what you are dealing with.” Oh really? Stark took a glance around the forest, “Uh, Shakespeare in the Park? Doth Mother know you wear-eth her drapes?”

Stark was asking to get punched in the face, “This is beyond you, metal man.” Ha! “Loki will face Asgardian justice.” Um, didn’t he commit heinous crimes on Earth, entitling him to face Earth justice? Stark said, “He gives up the Cube, he’s all yours. Until then,” the faceplate slid down, “stay out of the way.”

Oh boy. She heard Stark mutter “Tourist.” Then Thor chucked his hammer at him. Not cool, he just took down two more trees when he flung Stark. This was a nice forest. Probably a herd of centaurs nearby, stop it.

Thor summoned the hammer back and stared up at the cliff-face and Jace turned to see Loki. She flew off to sit beside him. He stared curiously at her for a moment then turned his attention back to the Iron Man/Thor showdown. Eh, why not?

Here’s how it went: Thro swings hammer, Iron Man blasts him, shoves Thor into a tree (therein destroying said tree), Thor summons hammer, then summons lightning (Oooh, pretty light show), shoots lightning at Iron Man, Iron Man unleashes shitload on energy, Thor flys at Iron Man, Iron Man flies at Thor, both smack into each other.

Big fight/mountain smackdown…

Even more forest destroyed.

A few punches thrown. Thor tries to crush Iron Man suit. Iron Man blasts and head-butts him. Thor head-butts back and sends Iron Man spralling. Weird tango more that knocks Thor into tree. More punches. Sumo slam. Thor summons hammer. Iron Man blasts repulsors, propelling forward and Thor faceplanting, Iron Man punches, then both get hit with Captain America’s shield.

Okay, now would be the time to intervene.

“Hey that’s enough.” He shouted. Then he jumped off, yet another broken tree. “Now I don’t know what you plan on doing here –” Jace flew off the perch besides Loki and landed on the tree the Captain just vacated.

“I have come to put an end to Loki’s schemes.” Thor interrupted. Quite loudly too. Rogers said, “Then prove it. Put that hammer down.”

“Yeah no,” said Stark, “He loves his hammer!” But Thor knocks him back and precedes to attack Rogers, “You want me to put the hammer down?” And Jace knows what’s going to happen next and that is so not happening. Jace jumps off the tree and out of her Nightingale mode, surprising the four men (Loki can see what is happening and his jaw drops)

“NO! no, no, no, no, no, no, no-no-no, nuh-uh, no!” Jace yells at the stunned god of thunder, “No. absolutely not. I have seen enough of damage that you and the Tin Man, here, have down. And I have had it up to here!” she raised her hand a foot above her head.

“Do you see me coming to your home and knocking down your forests. No! No! You do not!” When Thor opened his mouth to speak she instantly cut him off, “No, you do not get to speak right now! I do not care if you are the fucking Queen of Sheba! You do not get to do that! Now you and these other two are going to get your crazy brother. We are all going to get on the Quinjet together and we are going to go back to the Helicarrier, where we can have this conversation calmly and rationally! DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?!”

Thor’s eyes were blown wide at the shorter woman who would dare berate the prince of Asgard. But then he takes a look around and sees the damage to the forest he and the metal man have done and feels slightly ashamed. He drops his hammer from his warrior’s grip and lets it go slack in his hand.

“Better,” the black and purple woman replies, “Now you three are going to go get penis-compensating helmet and I’ll have Natasha bring the jet around, we clear?”

The three men nod quickly, afraid to incite the fiery woman again, “Good. And put these on Loki,” she said holding up a pair of pink fluffy handcuffs. She gave a cruel smile, “I found them just for your brother’s sake.”

Stark began to cackle and Jace knocked on his face plate, “Shut up you or face my wrath.” She began to walk to the edge of the clearing messing with her phone.

Rogers spoke up, “How did you do that? With the bird thing?” The second time today, she looked over her shoulder and gave him and mysterious smile, “That’s for me to know and you to find out.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Huzzah. Chapter 6 is finished. Turned out a little bit different than the way I planned it but I like it. Any comments on it, please let me know. Helps me gear up for the next chapter. Well hopefully I’ll see you next week guys. And remember to keep voting on who plays Jace.
> 
> Rule27 out.


	7. Sometimes You Can't Handle the Truth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m in the middle of creating fan art starring these lovely ladies (well only Emilia Clarke, Alexandra Daddario because I can find any inspiring images of Gemma Arterton so I’m taking the fourth place winner, Michelle Trachtenberg) these images will be posted to my DeviantArt account with images of the other Avengers, you can find the link on my profile. 
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own The Avengers or Harry Potter. I’m pretty sure I am not JK Rowling or Marvel, so…

Jace and her super team of weirdoes got back to the helicarrier in record time. The ride back was tense and awkward. Thor was glaring at Loki, Loki was glaring at Jace, Stark was snickering at the pink, fluffy handcuffs on Loki’s wrists and Steve was curiously glancing between the four of them and Natasha.

Jace was smiling benignly and ignoring them all.

As soon as they got back to the helicarrier Jace took Loki to the guards to escort him to the brig. She always loved saying the word brig and with Nick running SHIELD, this place really did seem like a pirate ship. The flying one from Peter Pan. Except more metally... and moderny.

Loki walked silently with a circle of guards through the corridors of the helicarrier. His face was stoic, giving nothing away. He had at least half a dozen guards on him, all carrying massive amounts of firepower. Even Jace would be a little nervous. Miniscule, though.

They were walking down the hall and Jace was starting to get pissed off by the stares some of the agents were flashing at her. Men’s eyes glimmering in appreciation, women’s in contempt.

She needs to get this eff-ing skirt off and fast.

They were passing through the research and science labs, when Loki’s head turned a fraction of an inch to peer into one of the labs. A full-blown smirk grew on his face and Jace saw it. She turned to see a familiar scruffy-looking fellow in a lab, fiddling with his glasses.

_Dr. Banner,_ her thoughts whispered. She had been in charge of the Banner surveillance for a while now and she’s not one to forget a face. She whispered to one of the guards to go on without her. Loki shot her a small look of confusion until they passed round a corner.

She ducked into Dr. Banner’s lab, startling the man a bit. She snorted lightly, “Funny you would be scared of me.” She smiled kindly at Dr. Banner as he ducked his head. “I’m not frightened, just a little curious to why you ditched Loki to see me.”

He lifted his gaze to meet her and her smile grew, “I just wanted to introduce myself, since we’ll probably be working together.” She walked closer and held out her hand, “Agent Jace Black.” He seemed to stare at her hand for a moment, “It’s not going to bite.” She chuckled as his gaze hit her again; he blushed slightly but took her hand in a soft grip.

“Bruce Banner.” He shook her hand twice, quickly, and let go. She blinked but shook it off, “I think you’re missing the ‘Doctor’ part of your title.” She smirked slightly. His eyes widened a fraction, then lit up in recognition, then turned sad all at once. “So, you’re the ‘Jace’ Agent Romanoff mentioned? The one keeping tabs on me?”

Her smile slowly disappeared and she nodded solemnly, “Yes, I would suppose Natasha would mention me. I was mostly in charge of keeping up to date on your whereabouts Doctor. I – I…” she tried to say but the words got caught in her throat.

He smiled dejectedly, “I suppose I need to thank you. For – um – keeping the ‘interested parties’ off my trail. I know –” but Jace cut him off, “No. No. Absolutely not. Don’t ever try and thank me for that. It was a blatant disregard to your privacy, Doctor. One I am so sorry for. You deserve to live your life without the constant threat of – anything really. Fury told me this was better than having you locked up in a cage somewhere by Ross or someone else. I sadly agreed even though I wish it were easier.” She sighed sadly and peeked at Banner through her eyelashes.

His mouth was slightly agape and he stuttered, “Tha -Thank- Thank you?” She chuckled, “What did I say, Dr. Banner?” He gave her a look, “Thank you for what you said. Most people don’t think that way.” She laughed at that, “I’m not most people.”

“Thank you again, Agent Black.” He smiled slightly, but Jace shook her head, “Uh-uh, it’s Jace. To you and everyone else, just Jace.”

“Okay then, Just Jace then call me Bruce.” He was about to say something else when the intercom came on, “Dr. Banner?” It was Natasha.

“Agent Romanoff, what can I do for you?”

“Dr. Banner, could you please make your way to the bridge. There is a meeting starting soon and Fury wants you here.”

“Of course.”

“And Doctor?”

“Hmm?”

“Bring Jace with you.” And her voice clicked off and Bruce turned to Jace with his eyebrow up. Jace was confused herself. “How did she… wait its Nat. Of course she would know. It’s like some weird sixth sense.” A chill ran down her spine and she shook it off, “Well shall we go?”

Bruce picked up his glasses and put them in his shirt pocket, “We shall.”

As they exited the lab, Jace winced and Bruce turned to her, “Actually can I meet you there? I kind of have to… change.” He glanced down at her skirt and bare legs, a faint blush appeared on his cheeks, “Yeah. I’ll tell her you might be a little late.” She smiled warmly at him and kissed his cheek.

“Thanks Bruce. I’ll see you later.” She ran off, leaving him gaping like a fish.

* * *

_“You get how that works?” said Director Fury to Loki, who was in a steel and glass prison. Fury gestured to Loki then to the console controlling the locks, “Ant. Boot.”_

_Loki chuckled as he examined the prison, “It’s an impressive cage. Not built, for me, I think.”_

_“Built for something a lot stronger than you. And tested by someone a lot like you. **Better** than you, but like, all the same.”_

_“Oh I’ve heard.” Loki said turning to the camera, “A mindless beast.”_ Tasha stared down at the screen in front of her, _“Makes play he’s still a man.”_ Bruce had his arms over his chest, looking deprecatingly at the screen. _“And the shape-shifter. In a woman’s body. Formidable. Able to take down a god and vituperate the god of thunder. How desperate are you? That you call on such lost creatures to defend you?”_

_“How desperate am I? You threaten my world with war. You steal a force you can’t hope to control. You talk about peace and you kill ‘cuz it’s fun. One of my team has taken down someone like you before. The one that put the cuffs on you. She’s not a killer, never has been. But she has taken down bigger and worse people than you and I haven’t even told her you’ve got her brother. You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did, because when she does find out… even I wouldn’t wish that on a person.”_

_“Ooh. It burns you too have come so close. To have the Tesseract, to have power, unlimited power. And for what? A warm light for all mankind to share. And then to be reminded of what real power is.”_

_“I do see it. Almost every damn day. Black does at least six impossible things before breakfast. I’m going to pray that you end up in Hell. That’s would be better than whatever Jace will do to you, and let me know if “real power” wants a magazine or something.”_

The feed cut out in the bridge as Fury left. Bruce smiled, “He really grows on you, doesn’t he?”

Steve spoke up, “Loki’s gonna drag this thing out.” Natasha smirked, “I can’t wait to see what Jace is going to do to him.” Steve’s eyes went to her, “I’ve seen her in action. She’s definitely got some moves, a few I didn’t even see coming.” Bruce glanced curiously at him and Steve corrected himself, “She – ah – turns into a bird.” and Bruce’s eyebrows shot up.

Tasha muttered, “I’m going to kill her for not telling me that.”

Steve and Bruce glanced at her, then Steve said, “Back to Loki. So, Thor, what’s his play?” Thor brought himself out of his stupor, “He has an army called the Chitauri. They are not of Asgard or any world known. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the Earth. In return, I suspect, for the Tesseract.”

Steve blinked at him, “An army… from outer space.”

A birdsong echoed throughout the bridge and in flew a Nightingale from a vent, the room seemed to freeze as the animal swooped down and landed on the railing. The room stared at the bird, the bird stared back. It gave a shudder and morphed into a woman.

“Please Captain,” said Jace,” that is not the strangest thing you’ve seen or heard today.” When she didn’t hear the sound of keyboards moving or people, she turned to the crew below deck, “Alright you lot, back to your knitting.” She shook her head in disgust as they sprang into action. Gone was her skirt and fishnets, in turn for a pair of black jeans, her leather jacket and shirt that read, “Save the Nargles.”

Natasha gave her a look and Hill spoke, “How’d you get back on board? I thought you were banned.” Jace questioned innocently, “I thought banishment was on a bi-monthly basis. Two months on, two months off?” Maria shook her head, “No? Well damn, someone screwed up.”

Maria shook her head, exasperated. Jace smiled again and hopped off the railing. When she caught sight of Bruce’s incredulous stare and curious looks from Tasha, Steve and Thor, “Someone forgot to tell Bruce, didn’t they?” At their blank stares, “Of course you didn’t.” Jace muttered. She scratched her head sheepishly, “Um, yeah I do that and a few other things.”

Steve got his voice back, “Are you like Loki?”

Thor gave her a curious glance too, “Yes, and no. Kinda sorta-ish, I guess. But I can only use my powers for good. Until… you know… I decide to take over the world, but that’s a few years off. So don’t worry about it.” Once again she was met with blank stares, and Jace sighed, “I’m not fully human. I’m a hybrid. A human-light elf hybrid, to be exact.”

Thor furrowed his brow, “You are Ljósálfar?” **(A/N: pronounced yo-zal-far)**

“Half, yes. Millennia ago, the light elves came to Earth to learn about the realm of Midgard. They were hailed as angels by Christians, but by Druids they were welcomed as gods. Gods of the Old Religion. True creators of magic to the Druids. Merlin and Morgana-esque figures.”

Bruce blinked, “Arthurian legends Merlin and Morgana?” Jace ran her fingers through her hair, “Not necessarily a legend, more like a lost history. Anyway light elves copulate with humans, bing-boom you’ve got yourself a hybrid. Back then, they called them sorcerers and enchantresses. Wizards and witches. But Ljósálfar DNA is basically a genetic disease and passes down generation to generation.”

“Some generations get lost but appear in weird situations I don’t have enough time to explain but you get regular humans, who are suddenly told they’re a witch but actually its repressed DNA. Then there’s also physical location and sun/moon rotation thrown somewhere in there. But yeah; that ,in simplest terms, is it.” There were a few confused looks, so Jace decide to move on and said,      

“Banner I can hear you thinking, spit it out.”

Bruce shook himself, “Loki’s going to have to build another portal. That’s why he needs Selvig.”

“Selvig?” asked Thor.

“Erik Selvig, he’s an astrophysicist.”

“He’s a friend.” Jace waltzed over to the table, “You know I miss the days the badies knocked on the front door, instead of kicking in the back one.” Cue stares, “What I mean is, using the Tesseract is cheating. An armada should be brave and face us head on instead of sneaking in and surprising us. At least they die with honor.”

Steve gave her a weird look, “What I want to know is why Loki let us take him. He’s not leading an army from here.” Jace snorted softly but Bruce said, “I don’t think we should be focusing on Loki. That guy’s brain is a bag full of cats. You could smell crazy on him.”

“Have care how you speak. Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard. And he is my brother.” Thor boomed in.

Tasha spoke next, “He killed eighty people in two days.”

“He’s adopted.”

“What’s wrong with being adopted?” Jace’s eyes flashed hotly and Thor took a step back. Natasha gestured for her to come over. Jace took the seat next to her and Nat placed an arm around her shoulders. Jace gave her a small smile.

“…Iridium, what do they need it for?”

“It’s a stabilizing agent.” chimed in Tony Stark as he walked in with Phil. He muttered something to him and then they pulled away. Jace shot out of her seat towards Phil. “Oomph!” he said as he caught her. “Missed you Phil.” She muttered into his suit. “I missed you too, sweetheart.”

“…Point Break. You’ve got a mean swing.” Jace snorted lightly, “Swing is right. You two almost took out an entire forest.” Phil pulled back and gave her a stern look, “I’ve been meaning to ask you about that. Jumping out of a Quinjet?”

Jace smiled innocently.

“… Raise the mizzenmast. Jib the topsails.” Both Jace and Phil and the rest of the room stared at Stark at the console. “Huh, thought only I could do that.”

“That man is playing Galaga. He thought we wouldn’t notice but we did. How does Fury even see these?” Stark said messing with the console. Maria answered, “He turns.”

“Sounds exhausting.” He began fiddling with the touch screens, “The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily.”

“What did you say?!” Silence flooded the room, Stark crinkled his eyes, “I said Ba-” Both Phil and Nat shot up, “That’s enough, Stark.”

Stark bristled a bit but continued on his little speech.

For Jace, all she could hear was the race of her heartbeat. She was only half listening to Stark earlier, had she heard him correctly? Her eyes flickered to the air vents, she had scoped them out earlier and had found no evidence of Clint. But couldn’t he be in his room? Or the mess? Bathroom?

“…the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage-monster.” Bruce thinned his lip and said “Thanks.”

“Dr. Banner is only here to track the cube. I was hoping you might join him.” With that, Fury was on deck. Steve said, “Could start with that stick of his. It may be magical but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon.” Fury cast a look to Jace, “I don’t know about that, but it is powered by the Cube. And I’d like to know how Loki used to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys.”

Click. The final pieces of the puzzle flew together in Jace’s mind. Selvig. Base destroyed. Selvig worked in New Mexico. Clint was sent to New Mexico to guard Selvig. Loki kidnapped Selvig to build a portal for his alien army. Loki. Selvig. New Mexico. Clint. Clint. Clint. Clint…

“… I understood that reference.”

Jace whispered, “No.”

Eight pairs of eyes flew to her, “No.”

“I thought I got that right?”

Jace shook her head, “No. No. No.”

“Here we go again.”

“Shut up, Stark.”

“No. Please no.”

“Jace, sweetie, tell us what’s wrong.”

“Please no, no.” Jace’s lip quivered as she saw people moving closer, “How could you? HOW COULD YOU?!” she roared, halting all movement. “How could we what, Jace?” Her face began to contort into a scowl. “Where’s Tweety?”

“Jace…”

“WHERE IS HE?!”

Collective sighs could be heard, “He’s gone, Jace. Loki has him.” Jace swore the sound of her breaking heart could be heard throughout the room. Jace just stood there her face blank, all emotion gone. Empty. She was empty.

Then she turned and headed for the doors, Natasha grabbed her arm to pull her back, “Where do you think you’re going, Jace?”

“I think I’m going to Loki’s cell and tear his mind apart until he doesn’t remember anything about anything!” Natasha gripped her shoulders, “I know you think that’s going to make you feel better, but it isn’t. Outsmarting Loki and getting Clint back will.”

“Then I go inside his mind and rip out Clint’s location.”

Thor stepped up, “My brother has sent the Tesseract off, even he does not know of its location. He has sent your and my friend with it. Loki’s mind is already fractured from his fall off Asgard, plunging into his mind might damage him more.”

Natasha reached up and took Jace’s face in her hands, “Be better than Loki, Jace. I know you can find Clint, help Stark and Banner to determine the cube’s location and then we’ll find Clint.” Jace’s stoic face crumbled, “I just want him back.”

“I know, _Gejl_. I know.”

Jace squeezed her eyes shut, then blinked away the tears that threatened to spill over, “But after this is done. I get to have fifteen minutes alone with Loki. He’s not getting off scott-free.” Natasha smirked, “Not if I have anything to say about it.”

Jace nodded and turned to Bruce and Stark, “Let’s go boys. Faster we work, faster we find them.” And she led them off to Bruce’s lab. Coulson called out, “Put in your comm!”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Steve turned the others, “That was terrifying.”

Fury sighed, “You haven’t seen her really yell. It’s why we don’t let her teach anymore.”

“She used to teach?”

Maria stepped in, “Recruits. We had two 100-student classes quit after three days with her. Let’s just say Agent Black is no longer part of the SHIELD screening process, either.” Fury sighed, “That was a disaster.”

Coulson added, “This disaster could have been avoided if it had been Jace in New Mexico instead of Barton.” Steve and Thor looked doubtful, “And have her on Loki’s team instead of Barton? No way.”

The four senior agents chuckled, Fury said, “No. What he means is that Loki wouldn’t have gotten three feet before Jace would have taken him down.” Natasha smirked, “Six impossible things before breakfast.” Steve’s eyes lit up and Thor looked confused, Coulson clarified, “Jace is infamous for doing impossible things Lord Thor. And that’s only the four years she’s been here. Jace is very unforthcoming with information about her past, but there’s one feat she did tell us.”

“What do you know about the Deathly Hallows?”

 

 

 

**Before you go a little sneak peak at next week…**

_“Are you nuts?”_

_“Debatable.”_

_“_ _Jury’s still out.”_

* * *

_“I like you. You remind me of when I was young and stupid.”_

* * *

_“I did not know Hela had taken a new avatar.”_

_“She hasn’t made it official yet.”_

_“Why?”_

_"I keep dying.”_

* * *

_“There will be a day when you ask for my help and I will sit back and watch you burn…”_

* * *

_“Tasha, whatever you do don’t move. Actually don’t even breathe. Easy there…”_

* * *

_“PHIL!!!!”_

* * *

_“You son of a bitch…”_

 

**Bye bye now!**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, yeah I ended in a cliffhanger. I’m sort of infamous for those. But anyway just to clarify, Jace is a hybrid between a human and alien called a “light elf”, specifically Ljósálfar or that her ancestors hail from Alfheim.
> 
> Crazy, I know, but I didn’t want magic to be just magic, I wanted some explanation for it. It wasn’t just here, was it? So that’s what I came up with.
> 
> Didn’t explain it last time but Natasha’s petname “Gejl” is Russian for “Gale” as in “Nightingale”. Once again just to clarify.  
> The whole pairing is very slow going and it pains me to say it might have to continue on into a sequel. I don’t just want to throw them at each other. That’s bad writing. 
> 
> I wanted to get up to the scene with Nat and Loki, but it just wasn’t happening tonight. And I want my Sunday free to do Sunday stuff.
> 
> And once again check out my profile for the link to my DeviantArt account and check out the fan art I will be posting. Well I think that’s it for tonight. See you hopefully next week.
> 
> Rule27 out.


	8. Loki You Little Sh#* pt. 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A Rule27NeverKnowinglyBeSerious fanfic
> 
> … Author's Notes below… PLEASE READ!
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own The Avengers or Harry Potter. I'm pretty sure I am not JK Rowling or Marvel, so...

Jace was sitting on the counter while Bruce and Tony were messing with all the equipment in the lab. Bruce kept sending her quick glances; she could tell he was uneasy around her. Might be the fact he changes into a not-so-friendly green giant whenever exposed to situations with high adrenaline.

Adrenaline and Jace go hand-in-hand.

This is why she left the Elder wand in her bunk. Not that she needed the wand anyway, but it was probably not have the most powerful wand in existence around a guy… well you get the idea.

Tony and Bruce were talking about some "sciency" stuff, that she really didn't care about (especially understand). So she was fiddling with a couple threads she had picked loose from her jacket. She overheard parts of their conversation as she weaved the threads together in a random pattern. She heard words like, "calibrate", "teraflops", and "toothbrush".

Three words, she was positive did not belong in the same sentence.

"Making a voodoo doll for Reindeer Games?" she heard Tony address her. She smirked slyly, but kept weaving. "Voodoo isn't real Stark. And besides I don't need a so-called 'voodoo doll' to make Loki talk. I have my ways." Tony scoffed and went back over to bother Bruce.

It wasn't until she heard an "OW!" when she spoke again. "Tony…" she said in a motherly tone, "Stop bothering Bruce." Then she heard Steve's voice, "Are you nuts?"

"Debatable."

"Jury's still out." Tony countered, shooting Jace a look. Steve flashed his eyes to Jace, "You approve of this?" as Tony continued to mess with Bruce. Jace raised a lazy eyebrow, "As long as Mr. Stark pays for the damages he causes in the purposeful release of said 'Hulk', I have no control over what he does." Lie, she'd make sure the Hulk never appear on the helicarrier. She had a few past dealings with ferocious beasts before and therefore had a few cards up her sleeve.

Steve glared slightly, "He's threatening the safety of everyone on this ship. I thought you were a SHIELD agent? Isn't your duty to protect and serve?" Jace's eyes darkened, "I, myself, can threaten the lives of everyone on this ship and besides Dr. Banner wouldn't be here unless he could handle the stress this job would place on him. And don't assume Captain that I would let him or Tony hurt anyone. Yes my job is to protect but as sure as hell I will never serve anyone."

She went back to fiddling with her threads as the boys began to chat.

"… You think Fury's hiding something?"

Tony glanced suspiciously over at Jace, "He's a spy, Captain. His secrets have secrets. Even Banner knows something's up."

"Uh…"

Steve said, "Doctor?" Three pairs of eyes flashed simultaneously towards Jace, who sighed. "Nick is the head of the biggest spy agency in the entire world. Underground organizations in hundreds of countries. There are some secrets he doesn't want people to know."

Tony asked, "Do you know them?"

Jace sighed again, "Unfortunately." Then she threw the threads to the floor. Tony pressed again, "Can you tell us?" Jace gave him a look, "Really? I only know because my powers."

"Powers? Like the bird thing?" Bruce asked curiously. Jace licked her lips, "I can do almost anything within bounds of the laws of physics, including telepathy." Their eyes went wide, "During my first year at SHIELD, I was a physical, emotional, and mental wreck. I had neurons of energy bouncing through my body and brain. My brain became more vulnerable to human thoughts. I could barely walk down a hallway without screaming at the overload of information my brain received."

"What did you do to stop it?" Bruce asked again.

"I had to build up my mental shields. It was a lot of meditating and practicing with Coulson, Natasha and Fury also volunteered because he wanted to see what I could do." Jace sighed, "But a door works two ways, they could project their thoughts into my mind and as easily I could look into theirs."

"I learned many things about SHIELD, not all of them are pretty. But I have no say in anything that happens. I do my work and I go on with my life."

"It doesn't bother you at all?" Steve crossed his arms. "I never said it didn't bother me, I ignore it. If it ever got to a point where all life on Earth was at risk, then I would stand up. But we can't have everything we want Captain, life doesn't work like that." Jace retorted.

Jace quick-like untied her boots and placed them on the floor, "Now if you'll excuse me I have a call to make." She folded her legs into the Lotus position, closed her eyes and focused on her breathing. "Well witchy's out. See Cap even the agent doesn't like what's going on. SHIELD's got secrets miles deep and I'm fortunately…"

"Just find the cube." With that Steve left.

"That's the guy my dad never shut up about?" Tony scoffed. With those words, reality faded and Jace found herself somewhere else.

* * *

Loki was slowly pacing back and forth in his glass prison, when he suddenly came to a halt. He smirked slightly, "I was wondering when I would be graced with your presence again, shapeshifter." Jace smiled benignly, "Thought I'd give you a few minutes. There's only some much people can take of this." She said, gesturing up and down her person.

"Quite."

They were silent a few moments, then Jace broke it, "I like you… you remind me of when I was young and stupid." She folded her arms across her chest and moved a few steps closer. "Is that an insult?"

"It's not an insult if it's true."

"Are you always this insolent?"

"Are you always this unpleasant?"

He said nothing and turned away from her. Jace sighed, frustrated, "Tell me the whole plan."

"Now why would I do that?"

"Well you already gave you're so called 'evil villain monologue. This is the part of the story when you blurt out your whole plan. I go and stop you. Everybody wins."

Silence…

"Except you, because nobody likes it when the bad guy wins. So… then I ride off into the sunset and you go to prison. The End." Loki turned to face her, "I can't tell what I find more interesting, your confidence or your ability to talk incessantly."

"There's a poll going around. I'll bring it to you later." He stalked towards her slowly, "You are quite the vexing creature." Narrowing his eyes, "So determined… and loyal. A creature with your gifts should be hailed by these weaklings. Yet you walk amongst them. In the dirt. Join me and I will show you the stars."

Jace narrowed her eyes suspiciously, and backed away as he stalked closer, "That's not… I don't…"

"I'll give him back. The archer. The man with heart."

He smirked as her eyes widened and her breath came out in pants. "I…" He strolled back from her slowly, "Tell me something. How long have you had Hela's gifts?"

"Wha…" she blinked and scrunched her face, "A decade or so." His smirk grew, "I couldn't have been gone that long. I would have known when Hela had taken a new avatar."

Jace gulped slightly, "She hasn't been able to make it official yet." He smirked as he almost had her, "Why?"

… "I keep dying."

Her voice was small now. Not at all swaggering tone she had approached him with. "How?" She self-consciously grabbed the studded leather cuffs at her wrists. "My family." Her voice was now a harsh whisper. He flinched internally at those words, as he could understand. But the bait was taken and now he had to reel her in.

"It hurts doesn't it." Her met with his briefly before they went back to the floor, "The very people who claimed to have love you, protect you, cherish you… to find out it was all a lie. They never loved you. They never respected you. They only used you as the means to an end. To have been betrayed by the ones you call 'family' or 'friend'. You were nothing to them. You ARE NOTHING to them! Nothing but a burden!"

…

…

…

"But I can help you. Because I was nothing once. I was betrayed by the ones I loved." He stepped closer to her.

"So help me. Help me show them that you are not nothing. Help me and I will make them bow before you. Help me and I will help you to become glorious."

…

…

…

"How do you become glorious when you're supposed to be the monster?" she spoke softly, barely above a whisper. Loki smirked evilly, "You unleash the monster they brought first."

…

…

…

"That was easier than I thought." Her eyes glinted mischievously as she met his furrowing brow.

"What?"

His smirk faded as hers appeared, "Getting you to unveil your evil plan. Mind you I didn't get the whole thing, but I got enough."

His features became enraged and he roared as he charged her. He meant to tackle her but as he crashed into her image, he fell through it and into the glass wall behind her. Her image wavered slightly as he looked back at her and she turned to face him.

"There are two major differences between us Loki. One: after I left behind my family, I found a new one. A better one. And two: your family still loves you. Even after everything you've done, after all you've killed, they still want you back. Thor came to get his brother back, to bring him home. Because he loves you. He still loves you. That's the difference Loki; my family never loved me, while yours always has."

She stepped back as her image faded. Now Loki was alone again.

* * *

The first voices Jace heard were Stark's grating one and Banner's soft baritone. As soon as her eyes opened, leaped off the table she was meditating on (startling the two scientists a little) and went straight for the phone on the wall. She dialed three numbers, and as soon as it clicked, "Loki was easier to manipulate than I thought. I got most of his plan… Call a Code 9 for Banner's lab… Yeah everyone needs to here this… Yeah, well I forgot to put it in okay… Just tell Thor to move his cape-clad butt in my direction… No I do not know what a bilgesnipe is… There will be a day when you ask for my help… I highly doubt a centaur is related to what Thor was blabbering about… I am just going to sit back and watch you burn when Nick finds out you knew about a Code 9 being called and didn't bother to tell him… Well you're thick… Yeah you're Mr. Thick, Thick Thickity Thickface from Thick Town, Thickania… That goes double for your mother."

She hung up with a huff to see gob-smacked expressions on the two scientists. "Henri in Communications has the biggest thorn in my side since I joined the agency. You really don't need to know the full story."

"I think we do…"

"What are you doing, Mr. Stark?" asked Fury as he entered with a flourish.

Jace tuned out as Fury, Stark and Banner started talking, she only came back when Rogers dumped a huge blaster on one of the lab tables.

"Phase 2 is SHIELD uses the Cube to make weapons. Sorry computer was moving a little slow for me."

"Rogers we gathered everything related to the Tesseract. This does not mean we are…"

"I'm sorry Nick." Stark announced loudly, "What were you lying?"

"I was wrong Director the world hasn't changed a bit."

When Nat and Thor entered, Banner turned his gaze to the two SHIELD agents, "Did you know about this?" Jace turned her head down solemnly and Nat put a hand on her shoulder, "Sorry to disappoint, but yes." her focus went to Jace, "What's going on  _Gejl_?"

"Why is SHIELD using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass distruction?"

Fury opened his mouth but Jace beat him to it, "Because of us." She said nodding to herself and Thor. "Us?" "You?"

She lifted her head to meet the eyes of everyone, "SHIELD is building these weapons on a defensive platform. They only caught on to my people because of all the shit that went down in England a decade or so ago. They had thought of the possibility of life somewhere else than Earth but it never occurred to them that they were already here or had been. Then Thor comes down and blows up a small New Mexican town. They did what they thought was the right choice, build up their arsenal and be prepared in case the next visit from aliens might not be so friendly."

Thor spoke next, "That may be the case but it sends a message to the stars that the Earth is ready for a higher form of war."

Fury sighed, "We had to come up with something." Tony began speaking as Banner looked to Jace, "You went a long with this?" Her eyes dulled, "My people could wipeout a life force with a flash of light. We needed some way to control them. The dealings with the Tesseract might be considered immoral or plain stupid. But sometimes Bruce there is something bigger at risk and you need to protect it in any way you can."

"So you'd pull the trigger on your own people."

"They pulled it first."

… "Excuse me did we come to your planet and blow stuff up?"

"Not yet." "Shut it Black." "I thought humans had more honor than this." "Are you boys really that naïve?" "…Stark's neck deep." "I feel threatened." "SHIELDS monitors potential threats" "Since when is Captain America a threat?" "I thought Miss-I-Do-Black-Better-Than-Anyone was the biggest threat in the room?" "The Tesseract…" "Nuclear deterrent…" "Humans had…" "…I thought everything was."

A funny ringing noise echoed in Jace's head as the tension and tempers rose. Why were they all here again? Wasn't Loki about to take over the world? Where's Woodstock? Weapons, Phase 2 (or was it 3?) Nuclear Deterrent. Tesseract. Tesseract. Tesseract. Blue. Blue. What's blue? The Tesseract, Loki's glow stick, Loki's eyes, Steve's eyes… What? No. Tesseract. Staff. Eyes.

Tesseract. Staff. Eyes.

Tesseract. Staff. Eyes…

"SHUT IT!" Jace finally yelled. Everyone froze at the sudden roar. Jace was panting slightly and her skin was clammy. The ringing had just gotten louder and louder…

Now it was lessening as the room was silent. And everything came back. "Of course…"

" _Gejl_ , what's up?"

"What's with Shouty?"

"I swear to God Stark, one more wisecrack…"

"Black you better…"

"You humans are so…"

"I for one…"

"SILENCE!" And everyone froze again as Jace clutched her head. "It's that thing. The staff. Loki's staff. Can't you see? It's making us agitated. It's making us angry. He wants us angry."

"Who?"

"No not him. It's not him. It's using his voice. That thi… that light… It's everywhere. There all connected. The Tesseract. The staff. Loki. There all here for one purpose."

"What's that Crazy-Pants?" "Stark…"

"You!" She said pointing frantically at Banner. "Me?" "Yes, that's his plan. No. Yes. His plan. Get caught on camera. Be taken in to custody… he didn't even try to run from the mountain. Then we'd get hold of his weapon. Run tests because it's similar to the Cube's energy signature and then…"

"Then what?"

Her face went solemn, "Unleash the monster." All eyes went to Banner, whose head went down. "But Banner is to secured, he'd never get access. Unless…"

"Unless…" The computers started beeping and Banner moved to check them.

"He's not the executor. He's the distraction!" Then everything went white…

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay. Well it's not really a delay. Here's basically a rundown of what happened. Got a job. Had ACT and SAT prep. College things. Senior things. Family things. Then I started writing the first week of June but things and shenanigans happened. Then dentist things happened. And I am still in pain three days later.
> 
> Hopefully I can get back into some type of writing groove, but no promises. I have many ideas like a Vampire Diaries/Fem! Harry crossover. But my brain is telling me probably not (mostly because I haven't seen the Vampire Diaries, meh). I wanted to have this fic done by the time The Winter Soldier came out, continue to a sequel of random things at SHIELD, skip Iron Man 3, move on to Agents of SHIELD and Thor 2 and then watch the Winter Soldier and see what I could come up with for that.
> 
> But my family went to see it the same day as the ACT.
> 
> And I was not happy with them at all.
> 
> But from what I can scrap from the Internet and other fanfictions I have a general idea of what happened. But I still want to see Chris Evans and Sebastian Stan go head-to-head before I do anything. And the Winter Soldier is due to come out Sept. 9. So I got a while.
> 
> Bt-dubs: REVIEWS ARE MUCH APPRECIATED. THERE ARE A THOUSAND OF YOU FOLLOWING ME. I THINK SOME OF YOU ARE CAPABLE OF TELLING ME YOUR FEELINGS ON A CHAPTER. It takes less than five minutes to tell me about what you liked or didn't like, what confused you, what made you laugh and possibly if you will tell a friend about this story and tell them to read it because you love it, even though I've been absent for 3/4 months.
> 
> So please tell me. This chapter was extra suspenseful to make you come back. Sorry, not sorry.
> 
> Rule27 out.


	9. Loki You Little Sh#* pt. 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A Rule27NeverKnowinglyBeSerious fanfic
> 
> … Author's Notes below…
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own The Avengers or Harry Potter. I'm pretty sure I am not JK Rowling or Marvel, so…

The first thing Jace opened her eyes to was a grate-metal floor and dim lighting. She groaned slightly and laid her head back down. Whose ever idea was to have a giant flying airship was a goddamn idiot, helicarriers are hella-stupid. The second thing she noticed was a warm liquid dribbling done her face and she caught the sight of a red bead dropping onto the metal.

The next thing was the ringing that had been echoing in her ears had deafened and she picked up Nat's faint words, "… I swear on my life I will get you out of this. You will walk away and never ever…"

A deep roar shouted back, "Your life?" Well crap.

Jace quick-like shook the remanding dizziness from her head and scrambled gracelessly to her feet. She saw Nat pinned under a broken pipe and a currently-transforming Bruce/Hulk. Again crap.

Jace's eyes flicked between the two unsteadily and she spoke, "Tasha whatever you do don't move." She eyes went back to Bruce, who was half-way green and growing, "Actually don't even breathe." Nat's eyes flickered to her but she didn't move. Jace murmured "Wingardium Leviosa" under her breath so the pipe started to inch off Natasha's leg. But now she had to deal with Bruce, who had fallen off the platform onto the concrete floor and completed his transformation as the Hulk and was now quite angry.

Бля.

The pipe had lifted just enough for Nat to slide her leg out and she climbed roughly to her feet. She gasped softly, unfortunately the Hulk's hearing was better than they thought and he turned to them with an angry snarl.

It was like facing that dragon again. Except this was her colleague and he was really quite angry. There was no reasoning with him right now and Nat was injured. The Hulk roared at them, Jace winced and thought,  _Sorry Bruce._ She grabbed Natasha and sprinted for the stairs behind them. She shouted behind her, "IMPEDIMENTA!"

The spell shot towards the Hulk and proceeded to slow him down for a few seconds, enabling Natasha and Jace to vault up the stairs. Until he smashed past the barrier and then ripped the stairs off. But luckily the spell slowed him down quick enough for Natasha and Jace to disappear amongst the pipes and machinery.

They slid to a stop near some conduits and were panting as quietly as they could. Natasha brought her gun out but Jace shook her head frantically. They startled at a slight crash then Jace grabbed Nat by the shoulders. "Shooting a gun at him might make him worse. Nat nodded her head but didn't put her gun away. They moved stealthily until they turned to the left and saw the Hulk's green face shouting at them. Nat shot her gun at the pipe above his head and Jace grabbed her arm as they sprinted past glass walls, the Hulk exploding everything around them.

The Hulk ended kicking Jace to the ground and batted Natasha into a wall. He started towards Nat when Jace shouted, "NO!"

The Hulk's angry visage turned towards her, "Please, please just stop." Jace whispered slipping into her natural cadence. Tears started to mix in with the blood running down her face. " _Just stop_."

She thought a look of confusion might of swept across his face but then Thor came crashing in. Her day just kept getting better and better.

She hobbled onto her legs, clutching her ribcage. She saw the Hulk roaring at Thor while engineers were running for their lives. Her breath was coming out in short pants as she turned to Natasha. "I'll deal with these two. You help the others. Got it?"

Her celery green eyes flickered to the damaged wall and winced slightly as she heard the sound of Thor's hammer against the Hulk and nodded. "I'll try and find Barton. What are you going to do?"

Jace huffed, "I'm gonna wing it and hope for the best." She jumped through the hole before she could lose her nerve and ran towards the massive heroes. She didn't stop even as Natasha called her name.

Thor had just tossed the Hulk into a plane when she screeched, "Stop!" She really did mean it, that equipment was expensive. The Hulk tossed the wing at Thor, who just missed it. "Exercitus agrum!" Golden shields erupted to trap both the Hulk and Thor. Hammer and fist met the flexible golden walls and absorbed the shock. Thor stopped hammering but the Hulk kept going. Jace started to feel the vibrations from the Hulk's pounding and it was rattling her teeth and ribs.

 _"Stop Bruce…"_ Jace hissed out, The Hulk flashed his electric green eyes to her and snarled. "I'm not trying to hurt you. I'm trying to stop you from hurting yourself or anyone else. Bruce… Hulk please just stop. I know Banner's mind has to be somewhere in there. You have some memory.  _This_ is Loki's plan. He knows he can't beat us if you're on our side. Bt you two are tearing this ship apart and everyone on it will perish if you continue. And I know Bruce can't handle anymore guilt. So please,  _please_ stop."

Something flickered in his eyes, Jace would bet her life on it. But Jace couldn't hold the spell any longer, her ribs were protesting and her teeth were close to shattering. Her knees met the floor and the gilded shields evaporated. Her breathing was short and harsh as she gazed at the Hulk. Nervous stares were shared between the trio.

_"Please…"_

* * *

Loki had smirked when he heard the beast's resounding roar. He knew it would only be a matter of time until he had escaped. There was only one thing still niggling in his mind.

The perplexing Agent Black.

As the God of Lies, he could tell when someone was lying to him. The best lies always had hints of the truth. She had played her part well in deceiving him. He knew she wasn't human, and was infinitely more powerful than the ones she served.

She could have anything she want but no… she walked the ground like a commoner.

Vexing creature.

But her words echoed over and over in his head.  _"How do you become glorious when you're supposed to be the monster?"_

Can monsters become glorious? On Asgard they sang songs and told tales of the beasts they had slain on their adventures. The tales never glorified the monster, only the slayer. The monsters were perceived as disgusting, terrible creatures that would rather be put out of their misery than live continue their retched existence.

Could the Lady Black be a monster? He shook his head to get rid of these tiresome thoughts. He could not let this girl - woman get into his head. He had an invasion to lead and a kingdom to create.

* * *

Jace slowly inhaled and exhaled as she gazed steadily at the Hulk. Electric green met emerald. Then suddenly, that small spark of something hopeful vanished from his eyes and she saw the rage seep back in. Her eyes widened in fear as he shook his head and snarled. Thor also looked apprehensive, his grip tightening on his hammer.

The Hulk's fist came out of nowhere and hit Thor straight in the kisser. He barreled towards Jace and smacked her to the floor. Then he floored it towards a wall and smashed through it. He couldn't be stopped. He kept running and running until he smacked into the reinforced exterior wall of the helicarrier. He just kept ramming into it until it gave way. The Hulk was sucked out with a "swoop!" of air and was gone.

Before anyone else could be sucked out Jace bellowed, " _Illi Venustatem!"_ A bubble wrapped itself around the hole and sealed the ship. Now if only someone would get the engines back up and get this damn boat in the air again.

Then everything went tilt-a-whirl. Jace let out a frustrated sigh, "Seriously?!" as she latched onto the nearest support structure. SHIELD's equipment started sliding across the floor. Jace reached out and latched onto one of Thor's vambraces before he could slide too far. He gripped her wrist and pulled himself onto the structure.

"Banner's out of the picture now and our floating sky fortress is falling from the sky. How much do you want to wager that Loki's planning to clear out?"

"I do not believe this is the time to gamble, Lady Black."

…

"Just fly us to Loki's cage."

* * *

Somewhere between points A and B, the helicarrier leveled out and Thor and Jace began running up and down stairs towards the detention level. Jace stopped short of the room while Thor raced in, screeching "No!" Jace heard a thud and the whoosh sound of a door closing.

Jace crept in slowly, seeing Thor in the cage and Loki smirking at him by the control panel. She winced as Thor beat his hammer against the glass and the cage started to come away from its holdings. She ducked behind the wall and quick-like tried to formulate a plan to stop Loki and free Thor.

She was so wrapped in her thoughts, she didn't see anyone coming and nearly took off hand that touched her shoulder. She turned to see Phil… and a very very big gun. She quirked an eyebrow. He shrugged. He gave her a few military hand signals, indicating he'd try and distract Loki.

Jace was apprehensive but agreed. She watched as he crept forward and took out the spare guard. "Move away, please." She had to smile at Phil's calm, bland tone.

"You like this?" Phil asked as he crept closer. Jace began to creep slowly as well, all eyes on Phil. "We started working on the prototype after you sent the Destroyer. Even I don't know what it does. Wanna find out?"

She saw a shimmer and Loki appeared behind Phil with his spear. Oh no you don't.

"PHIL!" Jace shot forward and began to attack Loki. His focus immediately shifted from Phil to Jace. She blocked his jabs with the spear and smirked at his groans when she hit with her knees. She caught a glance at Phil, who was trying to aim at Loki but couldn't get a clear shot, "Get Thor!"

Phil immediately turned and headed for the controls. She only had to kept him busy for a few more seconds…

Loki hit her in the ribs and she groaned (her earlier tussle with the Hulk still hurt) and slammed her head into the rail. He had her pinned on the rail and shot a glare to Phil and shimmered again. His double appeared behind Phil, who was busy releasing Thor.  _NO!_

*CRACK*

She apparated right behind Phil, in front of Loki… right as he brought the spear down…

…

…

…

It was funny she couldn't actually feel the spear. Then she coughed and then there was fire. Her emerald eyes met Loki's blue-green. Funny, the ringing in her head was back. Another cough as he yanked the spear out. She could vaguely hear Phil yelling her name. Was it her name? She couldn't make it out, there was too much ringing.

Jace suddenly couldn't feel her feet anymore and pitched forward. Surprisingly, Loki caught her. She was sure Phil was screaming at him to move away but all she could hear was the ringing. She felt woozy, but she wanted to get the last word in. So she said the only words left in her mind…

…

…

…

"You son of a bitch..."

…

Darkness was creeping on the edge of her vision and she could vaguely feel Loki's hands lifting her up. The background of the helicarrier shimmered away and her eyes met the bright light of the sun, shining against a brilliant blue sky.  _At least it's not cold grey stone or blackened water,_ her thoughts went back to the last time she died.

But she wouldn't come back this time. The runes were gone. Destroyed. The last thing she felt was Loki adjust his grip on her as he carried her away from her family.

Then the darkness came and her vision faded to black.

…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eep! (runs behind Cap's shield) Do you hate me now? I hate me now. Just kidding I love to write cliffhangers they make me feel so deliciously evil.
> 
> And sorry about the lack of updates. I knew how I wanted this chapter to end and I had one or two sentences in the beginning but I was on writer's block for the rest of it. Plus I started yet another new job. So now I'm working two jobs. But I have Tuesdays and Saturdays off, so those are most likely the days I'll update. But I start school in a couple of weeks so those updates might become Saturdays only.
> 
> I have a very weird writing style where I usually can only write a chapter in one sitting. I need to learn how to write when I can, but I get this horrible feeling of un-accomplishment and I can't remember what exactly I was thinking at the time when I was writing it. I hope you understood that.
> 
> Oh well. But please, please, please review. They really do encourage me to write faster and update sooner. Especially if they are more than "can't wait for the next chapter." Not that I don't love those, but I do appreciate more thoughts from you guys.
> 
> PS: Russian translation: Бля - shit.
> 
> I'm out.
> 
> Hugs and bacon, Rule27


	10. The Aftermath

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just brief thoughts of people throughout the Helicarrier after the battle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own The Avengers or Harry Potter. I’m pretty sure I am not JK Rowling or Marvel, so…

He couldn’t breathe.

For the second time in Phillip J. Coulson’s life he couldn’t breathe.

As he stood on the balcony overlooking the Hulk containment unit, Phil was struggling to come to terms of what just happened. His mind processing the scene. Loki was fighting Jace when he had moved to the control panel. His back was turned for mere seconds when he heard a crack and before he knew it. Jace was on the ground, blood on her lips, struggling to breathe with the massive wound on her chest.

Another beat, another second and both she and Loki were gone.

Part of his family… just gone. It was almost as if it was just yesterday, that she, Barton and Romanoff exited that plane in Israel.

Phil took a deep breath. There was still a lot of work to be done…

* * *

Steve stood at the entrance to the containment room. He was watching over Agent Coulson as he had yet to leave the room. The Helicarrier was still running, just barely. He and Stark were able to jump start the turbine/fan thing that kept this massive ship in the air. There was a massive hole in the side of Helicarrier, due to the Hulk.

It had been situated for a moment (he hadn’t had all the details) when suddenly it broke open and the Helicarrier had begun to tip until someone was able to temporarily fix it. He was pretty sure Thor lent them a hand.

Then they had gotten the call.

“Agent Black is down.”

In that single moment everyone froze. Steve was still very unsure of Agent Black. He knew she was a good agent, if a little brazen. The one thing that threw him off guard when he first met her was her age. She was young to be so high up in an organization like SHIELD. He knew she was special, but with the way everyone was reacting. It made him a little wary.

Now it had been little over half an hour since last contact and Agent Coulson had yet to move from the balcony. Steve was about to move, about to say some- anything when Stark walked up behind him.

“Has he moved at all?”

“No. He’s just been standing there since medical cleared him.” Steve said, turning to him. Stark clenched his jaw slightly and rubbed his neck. Steve noticed the gestures and asked, “What is it?”

Stark sighed, “Fury wants us all in the wheelhouse. All of us.” He said emphasizing the last bit.

He moved to lean against the threshold leading into the room. He fixed his gaze on Coulson’s back. “Scuttlebutt’s saying that those two,” tilting his head to Coulson, “were about as close as father and daughter.” He paused, “Never pictured Agent to be type to have kids. I wonder if the cellist knows that…”

“Stark!” Tony stopped and looked at Steve. Steve was about to give him a piece of his mind when Coulson walked through the threshold. He glanced between Steve and Tony. He took a breath and said, “I believe we have some work to do.”

* * *

She left her for five minutes.

_I’m going to wing it and hope for the best…_

Five minutes. More or less.

_I’m going to wing it and hope for the best…_

Five minutes. That was all it took.

_I’m going to wing it and hope for the best…_

Five minutes to get to Barton. To knock him out with his own bow. To recalibrate his head, his mind.

_I’m going to wing it and hope for the best…_

Five minutes. For her sister to be taken from her. For one of her best friends to…

_I’m going to wing it and hope for the best…_

…

…

…

_I’m going to wing it and hope for the best…_

…

…

…

_I’m going to wing it and hope for the best…_

…

…

…

_I’m going to…_

_I’m going to…_

_I’m going to…_

…

Loki wasn’t going to last five minutes. “Для Вас сестра,” she growled. She sat on the edge of the infirmary bed and began to wait for him to wake up.

* * *

_“What do you know about the Deathly Hallows?”_

Even as Crown Prince of Asgard, he wasn’t fully aware of mystical powers of Helheim. And he told Son of Coul as much. The power of Hela’s gifts was not something discussed on Asgard. Even as beings as old as they were feared Death. As far as he knew Death had never had a Master in his lifetime.

Meeting the small female warrior was both a blessing and curse. She was mighty despite her small stature and very powerful as the legends told of the Master. Not only was she Midgardian but also Ljósálfar.

Ljósálfar was a miracle unto itself. He had only heard of them in tales. They had died out millennia ago. The last they had been heard of was when his grandfather had been king.

But that didn’t matter now. Now his brother had taken her. Or at least her body. He needed to figure out what his brother wants with her. Before this world is destroyed.

* * *

Tony Stark was back in the containment room. Why? He didn’t have a clue. Fury’s little meeting wasn’t anything special, just some basic updates on the helicarrier, how they were doomed, blah, blah, blah. This place was the only thing on his mind.

_She’s twenty, Stark, now leave her alone and stop antagonizing the prisoner._

He didn’t know her. He shouldn’t care. But something niggled at the back of his head. There were four people in this room and anyone of them could have died.

Why did it piss him off that it was her? He was mulling over his thoughts, when a blue spandex-covered blond crept into the corner of his eye.  

As if his day could get any worst.

* * *

Natasha had given him the news. The last thing he had remembered was being in the lab, staring down Loki. He asked how many, Tasha told him this was something they never prepared for. Monsters and Magic.  

Then she dropped the bomb on him.

_“Loki stabbed Jace.”_

_“Communications are still down, so we can’t get a lock on them.”_

_“He took her body, Clint.”_

_“We can’t find her.”_

Now Clint Barton was staring at his reflection above the sink in the bathroom. The water was running and he was trying to wash out the bile in the back of his throat. His eyes had dark rings around them, his skin was sweaty and clammy; he felt like that one time he had gotten the flu.

He splashed water on his face again and turned off the sink. That’s when he caught the voices outside the door. Grabbing a towel, he wiped his hands while opening the door.

“I can.”

* * *

“ _We have an unauthorized departure from Bay 6._ ”

“They found him.” Pause. “Get our communications back up. I want eyes and ears on everything.”

“Yes sir. What are you thinking sir?”

“Loki doesn’t stand a chance.”

…

…

…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am back bitches. Well hopefully. I originally wanted to take the year and work on my novel but that didn’t happen. The rest follows: life got in the way, senior year happened, life happened, parents divorced, death in the family, life again, graduation, and finally the summer before college. I am sorry for the extra long break but shit happens.   
> So keep your fingers crossed that I stay on this story.  
> This chapter was not super hard to write because mostly it’s just filler but the idea of writing it was. I’ve got the rest of the story written in my head, now all I have to do is get it down.   
> I am praying to the gods of creative writing and inspiration.  
> Thank you all for sticking with me (I know it wasn’t easy) and thank you for your words/threats of encouragement. Please review and tell me how much you love this chapter or story (or how much you hate me :P)  
> I will try and be back in a couple days with the next chapter.  
> Love, Rule27


	11. The Devil’s In The Details

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loki and Jace have a little discussion...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own The Avengers or Harry Potter. I’m pretty sure I am not JK Rowling or Marvel, so…

**A Rule27NeverKnowinglyBeSerious fanfic**

The first thing Jace noticed was the pain. Nothing else existed. Nothing but the pain.

Little by little, it began to rescind. The pain was lessening. She began to feel the rise and fall of her chest. Her breathing was slightly harsh but her heartbeat was constant.

And it was loud. All of the blood pounding, almost deafening in her ears. She tried to swallow. Big mistake.

_Pain. Pain. Pain. Pain. Pain. Pain._

Slowly the pain retreated and her breathing mellowed. As she focused, she felt for the rest of her body. First action: wiggle her toes. She felt the hard insoles of the boots and something springy as she moved her feet a bit more. Second action: fingers. She focused on her hands and drummed her fingertips. She was on something silky… some soft fabric… adding in the subtle pressure behind her head, she concluded she was laying on a couch.

Now to test her hypothesis. She felt around her optical nerves. Slight bunching of her skin. Pressure behind her eyes. Jace forced her eyelids open.

Big mistake.

She immediately shut them again. _Too bright, way too bright._ Mustering her courage, she inched open her eyes slowly. As her eyes adjusted, she realized she was not on the Helicarrier. One, because the Helicarrier definitely did not have a view of the Manhattan skyline and two…

There was really no need to explain, she was in New York… in a skyscraper. “Bloody brilliant,” she whispered. She moved her arms to sit up and immediately fell back with a wheeze. She groaned as she ran her hand along her chest and came back with a hiss.

“I wouldn’t move if I were you.”

Startled, she glanced quickly to her right. She hissed again at the sudden movement and clenched her hands on her chest. She opened her eyes and moved her gaze to the cool voice. “You bastard,” she rasped. Jace’s eyes flitted over his calm posture. Loki had his back facing her as he took in the view from the encompassing windows.

“Now that’s not the way to address your savior.” She caught sight of his smirk as he turned towards her. He began to slowly stalk towards her. Her lips curled into a snarl, “I wouldn’t call the urchin who stabbed me a ‘savior’. Only cowards stab people in the back.”

His face contorted into a growl and he reached for Jace. His pale fingers wrapped around her throat and pushed his weight into the couch. Jace threw her head back with a cry, her wounds stretching and her oxygen cut off. She scrambled to grab his hand, her training abandoning her. Tears leaked from her eyes as she tried to push him off. But she was too weak. As she choked. Loki leaned in, his eyes piercing hers. He bared his teeth and said, “I… am… not… a coward.”

He squeezed her throat once then let go. He flew back as Jace attempted to recover her breath. She curled in on herself, “Okay… that wasn’t nice. Not nice at all. Got it… no more… sassy comebacks.” She coughed and wheezed. Her breathing slowly mellowed out as she snuck a glance at him. Loki’s gaze had returned to the window and he stood calmly with his hands behind his back as if he didn’t just try to strangle her.

Jace lied still for a few moments until she winced as she wrenched herself up from her position on the couch. She gently placed her arm on her chest, as her wounds pulled. She palmed her shirt, feeling a tear she ran a fingertip softly over her flesh. Touching raised skin, she looked down and grimaced.

One, her “Save the Nargles” shirt was completely trashed. Second, she had an angry red line; running from her clavicle, just inside her breast to her bra line. The skin was raised and irritated, like it had been sliced open days ago instead of hours. Third, _“That bastard ruined my favorite bra.”_ Lastly, _“He better not have taken a peek.”_ She immediately grabbed her jacket flaps and zipped it up to her neck. At least her jacket wasn’t ruined.

“Why?” Her voice echoed throughout the room. Loki didn’t even flinch, “Why what?” she grimaced as she tried to stand, only to plop back down on the couch. “Why save me? I’ve done nothing to earn it. You could have just left me there to die. But you didn’t. I want to know why.”

His eyes flickered to her and over her form. He moved his gaze back to the window, “I find you fascinating. Far too fascinating to die. You are an _exquisite_ creature,” She shivered slightly at his tone, “Far too complex for this mundane world. All those you surround yourself with, nothing extraordinary. You, however, have all the power to lord over them but you waste it. Lowering yourself, demeaning yourself, becoming a simple pawn in their game. When all this time you could be a queen… a god to lesser men. Yet… you walk with the common man. That is what I wish to know. Why?”

She froze. Jace was not expecting this at all. Had she thought about it, yes. But her answer was the same every time. “It’s not me. I don’t want to be above people. I don’t want people to bow before me. You know why? Because they are better than me.” His brow ruffled in confusion. “It’s not about power or how much longer you live. It’s not about being gods or kings or queens. It’s about being good. Being able to do the right thing. I use my powers to better the life of the people you surround me. To make a day shine brighter or make someone laugh. That’s what powerful beings are supposed to do. Not be glorified on a throne but to be in touch with the common man. Be the best person you can be for them. To protect and serve for them. So that they don’t have to live in darkness. So that they can be free!”

She stood up unsteadily, but planted her stance. “My people lived in fear of a man such as you. _Obsessed_ with power.” She spat. “When I finally finished him, I gained more power than I knew what to do with. So they feared me. My friends and family tried to kill me, in fear I would end up like him. Fear makes people stupid… but so does power. I didn’t want to become Death, so I locked away the power. I locked it away because I don’t want it. I don’t want to fear or revered. Because you know what… it’s not worth it. It doesn’t change anything. It doesn’t make people love you, it makes them afraid of you.”

She sighed shakily, “Loki please… I am begging you. Don’t do this. It’s not worth it.”

…

…

…

Loki just looked at her. No emotion, no indication he had even heard her.

…

…

…

Then he laughed. A laugh of condescension and pity. Blood rushed to her cheeks as he openly mocked her. He chuckled, “Do you really think that makes any difference? No, no. Did you actually hope that would make a difference? Because if you did, that just makes you as pathetic as the rest of them. Do you actually think I care if they fear me? No, I relish in their fear. A great man of Midgard once said ‘is it better to be feared than loved’. He was right, you know, fear is better. Fear is greater. Fear is…”

Humiliated by his reaction, Jace opened her big fat mouth, “What makes you a goddamn idiot.”

Loki flashed his gaze dangerously towards her, “And here I thought you had learned your lesson.” He made a move toward her, Jace hopped over the couch and hissed at the tug of her wounds. Loki materialized in front of her, “You can do better than that.”

Jace bolted for the stairs behind him. She tripped and he grabbed the back of her jacket. She brought her fist around to punch him but dodged and grabbed her wrist. Then he vaulted her across the room, she cried out as she slammed into a glass desk. She blindly reached in her jacket for her wand when she remembered it was with the rest of the Hallows. In a storage locker on the Helicarrier.

She tried to sit up, wary of all the glass on floor. Jace yelped as her hair was yanked up by the roots. Loki wrenched her head back and leveled the scepter with her throat. “I was honestly expecting more of a fight from you.”

_Fuck you,_ she thought. She slammed her boot into his foot, twisted her hair out of his grip, angled her body and slammed her foot into his solar plexus. It didn’t have the lasting impact she had hoped for, Loki bounced back and came at her again. She was on the defensive, too weak from her injuries and her magic reserves were depleted. He came at her again, slowly wearing her down.

“Do you know how hard it is to kill you?” he seethed.

She tilted her head, “I find it a tad disturbing how many people have actually said that to me,” She dodged his attacks when he came up with the butt of his scepter, catching her side. Jace howled in pain, leaving her vulnerable. He smacked her then punted her across the room with his boot.

She slid across the floor until she smacked into one of the windows, cracking it. The pain was excruciating. He had cracked her ribs, her lungs were on fire. The mere idea of breathing was a struggle. Her heartbeat was erratic and blood was rushing into her ears. Loki came and stood over her with an arrogant sneer. “I would think of something clever to say, but I’d rather just finish you off.”

Before he could do anything, the sound of jet repulsors came to their ears. Loki’s gaze went from Jace to the red suit outside.

Tony Stark had arrived.

…

…

…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello my lovelies. This is the update for the week. I would like to try and update sooner but it just depends on my schedule and what I’m doing this coming week. I’m going to say this ahead of time but I am starting school again in August so there might be a brief period of no updates until I get my feet underneath me.  
> Please review. I love to hear feedback, constructive criticism (key word: constructive), comments, love, etc. Thank you for reading the chapter and I hoped you enjoyed it.  
> Next up: The Battle for New York. Duh, duh, duh.  
> …  
> …  
> …  
> Sneak Peek:  
> “Cap, just stick with me. It’s going to be really weird having another voice in your head.”  
> …  
> “Um, he said don’t get dead.”  
> “Don’t blame Tweety for his poor grammar, he was raised in the circus.”  
> …  
> “Jace could probably handle it.”  
> “No Jace could not probably handle it! There’s a definitive difference between that thing and a dragon!”  
> …  
> “Selvig’s unconscious.”  
> “How did that happen?”  
> “I might’ve accidentally-on-purpose punched him.”  
> …  
> “Steve, I can’t hold it for much longer.”  
> “Close it.”  
> …  
> “It’s okay sestra, you can stay.”


End file.
